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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH 



BY 



ALFRED H^WELSH, M.A. 

{OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY) 

AUTHOR OF DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE, 

ENGLISH MASTERPIECE COURSE, ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH, 

COMPLETE RHETORIC, MAN AND HIS RELATIONS, 

ESSENTIALS OF GEOMETRY, PLANE AND 

SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY, LESSONS 

IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR 



j4^ 
<^7 



A~ 



' Telling, cramming, needless explanations, and rote-learning enfeeble the 
powers of a child, stifle his enthusiasm, and prevent him from learning how 
to learn ' 



CHICAGO 
JOHN C. BUCKBEE AND COMPANY 

1888 




T£n'l 



Copyright, 1888 
By John C. Buckbee and Company 



SEnttergitg presss: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



Enscribeti 

ta 
E. L. C. 

'There be those who sow beside 
The waters that in silence glide, 
Trusting no echo will declare 
Whose footsteps ever wandered there.' 



PREFACE. 



This book, as its title implies, is written for 
children. Accordingly, the whole discussion pro- 
ceeds along the line of evolution. Facts are 
adduced and amply illustrated before principles 
are stated ; ideas are developed before terms are 
given. The child is made to perceive before he 
is asked to remember, and to reason before he 
is required to generalize. 

Starting with a thought as the unit, the pupil 
is familiarized with the form and structure of 
the sentence, its subject and its predicate ; with 
oral and pictorial analysis; with the offices of 
the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the verb, 
the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, the 
interjection ; then with the subdivisions of the 
parts of speech, with the processes of inflection, 
and, finally, with the laws of construction. 

Only one topic is presented at a time. No 
new difficulty is introduced until the one in 
hand is fully mastered. Invention is taxed con- 



vi PREFACE. 

stantly. Memorization is reduced to a minimum. 
Needed definitions are brought forward only- 
after the ground they cover has been occupied 
by examples and questions, which are imme- 
diately followed by copious and varied exercises 
to clinch what has been learned. 

To prevent pupils from becoming the slaves of 
form, stress is at every point put upon the mean- 
ing; and due attention is bestowed, throughout 
the volume, Upon the transmutation of words 
(words variously used). 

Capital letters and punctuation are taught 
incidentally, in connection with language-study 
as it progresses. 

In the belief that the principles of a science 
should be applied as fast as learned, it has been 
sought to furnish for the pupils hands and eyes 
the largest possible amount and variety of work, 
much of which will be found to afford a valu- 
able training for the mental powers, and in the 
art of expression. 

A. H. W. 

Columbus, Ohio, 

May 28, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Sentences : 

i. What is a Sentence ? I 

2. Kinds of Sentences 4 

3. The Two Parts of a Sentence 9 

4. Analysis and Diagramming 14 

CHAPTER II. 
Classes of Words : 

1. Noun 21 

2. Pronoun 23 

3. Adjective 26 

4. Verb 30 

5. Adverb 32 

6. Preposition 36 

7. Conjunction ( 40 

8. Interjection 44 

CHAPTER III. 

Words variously used 47 

CHAPTER IV. 

Equivalents 50 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Page 

Sub-Classes of Words : 

1. Kinds of Nouns 61 

2. Kinds of Verbs 66 

3. Kinds of Pronouns 80 

4 Kinds of Adjectives , . . . 97 

5. Kinds of Adverbs 107 

6. Kinds of Prepositions 116 

7. Kinds of Conjunctions 119 

CHAPTER VI. 

Elements 125 



CHAPTER VII. 



Inflections: 



Inflection of Nouns 142 

Inflection of Pronouns 149 

Inflection of Adjectives 154 

Inflection of Adverbs 157 

Inflection of Verbs 159 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH ....... 190 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



CHAPTER I. 

SENTENCES. 

§ i. What is a Sentence ? 

Nests, birds, in the garret, Margie and Oril, Christ- 
mas, children, gives, Santa Claus, presents, are words. 
As they are put here, they are merely signs of ideas ; 
they name things, but say nothing. To make them tell 
something, it is necessary to add what is done by the 
birds, or persons named, and to join the words together 
in a certain way. Thus : 

Birds build nests. 

Margie and Oril are playing in the garret. 

Santa Claus gives children Christmas presents. 

Say something about bees. (Bees make honey.) 

Say something about rain. 

Ask something about flowers. 

Ask something about a horse. 

Ask something about a drum. 

Say something about red squirrels 

Say something about Charley's chickens. 



2 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

This mark — is called a dash. A dash is sometimes 
used to show that a word or words are left out. The 
space from which the words are omitted is called a 
blank. 

Fill the following blanks with suitable words: 
i. The fire . 



2. is pretty. 

3. is taller than . 

4. sits near me. 

5. is the capital of . 

Use the following words in telling what you can think 
about different things : 



fly 


sleep 


ran 


laugh 


cry- 


burns 


runs 


laughed 


shine 


took 


twinkle 


will laugh 



Use is, was, or has, in telling your thoughts about — 
Tom, a cow, the hen, the house, baby. 

Use are, were, or have, in saying something about — 
Shoes, trees, flies, two girls, the eggs, my mittens. 

Fill the following blanks with words suitable for say- 
ing something: 

1. The is growing. 8. The are growing. 

2. has been sick. 9. I saw in that tree. 

3. were whispering. 10. at recess. 

4. have been busy. 11. Plants need . 

5. He absent. 12. They by the window. 

6. The boy a tune. 13. The books . 

7. Girls rope. 14. Frank to school. 



I. 


Birds and fishes. 


13- 


2. 


Are in bloom. 


14. 


3- 


He came late. 




4- 


Elephant with his trunk. 


r 5- 


5- 


The clock ticks. 


16. 


6. 


Girls in the room. 


i7- 


7- 


My sled is green. 




8. 


It is made of stone. 


18. 


9- 


The apples sweet. 


19. 


TO. 


Melting snow. 


20. 


II. 


The house is on fire. 


21. 


12. 


Screaming child. 


22. 



SENTENCES. 3 

Which of the following groups of words say some- 
thing, and which do not? 

The child is screaming. 

Colors the has seven rain- 
bow. 

Birds are chirping. 

Hay on the wagon. 

The oxen are yoked to- 
gether. 

The man driving the pigs. 

He went to the city. 

The day is rainy. 

A rainy day. 

Fire burns. 

A group of words that says or tells something is a Sen- 
fence. 

Write — 

1. A sentence about a person. 

2. A sentence about a place. 

3. Two sentences in which you use the word is. 

4. Two sentences in which you use the word are. 

5. Two sentences in which you use the word has. 

6. Two sentences in which you use the word have. 

7. Two sentences in which you use the word was. 

8. Two sentences in which you use the word were. 

The words is, are, has, have, was, and were are printed 
in Italics. Italics are used in printing to show that a 
word is meant to be regarded either merely as a word, 
or as strong, striking. Thus : 

Him is a pronoun. 
The day is very cold. 



4 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

In writing, a line should be drawn under the word to 
be italicized. Thus: 

She is a brave, sweet girl = She is a brave, sweet girl. 



§ 2. Kinds of Sentences. 

Nellie whispers. Whisper, Nellie. 

Does Nellie whisper? How Nellie whispers ! 

Here we have four sentences, each with its own form 
and meaning. The first tells a fact, the second asks a 
question, the third expresses a command, and the fourth 
expresses sudden or strong feeling. 

Now, tells means the same as states or declares. To 
ask is to interrogate. To utter a command is to be 
imperative. To express sudden or strong feeling is 
to exclaim. 

Hence the first sentence is said to be declarative ; the 
second, interrogative ; • the third, imperative ; and the 
fourth, exclamative. Therefore — 

A declarative sentence is a sentence that tells, states, 
or declares. 

An interrogative sentence is a sentence that asks. 

An imperative sentence is a sentence that commands 
or entreats. 

An exclamative sentence is a sentence that exclaims. 

What kind of a sentence is each of the following? 

i. My father has gone to Europe. 
v 2. The wind blows. 



SENTENCES. 5 

3. Shut the door. 

4. Did he shut the door? 

5. Who goes there? 

6. What do you wish ? 

7. Where, little Margie, do you go to school? 

8. Oril, stay here, and study. 

9. The ostrich can run faster than a horse. 

10. Night is very beautiful in the desert. 

11. How beautiful is night in the desert ! 

12. The boy is running. 

13. Is the boy running? 

14. Run, boy. 

15. How the boy is running ! 

16. What a pretty doll you have ! 

1 7. You have a pretty doll. 

18. Have you a pretty doll? 

You see that each of these sentences begins with a 
larger letter. Such a letter is called a capital. 

You see also that after each declarative and each 
imperative sentence is a dot, showing that the sentence 
has ended. This dot is called a period. 

After each sentence that asks a question is a different 
mark, called an interrogation-mark. 

After each exclamative sentence is still another mark, 
called an exclamation-mark. 

Finally, the name of the person of whom a question 
is asked, or to whom a command is given, is set off by 
commas. Therefore : 

1. Every declarative or imperative sentence should 
begin with a capital and end with a period. 

2. Every interrogative sentence should begin with 
a capital and end with an interrogation-mark. 



6 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

3. Every exclamative sentence should begin with 
a capital and end with an exclamation-mark. 

4. The word or words which show of whom a 
question is asked should be separated from the rest 
of the sentence by a comma or by commas. 

5. The word or words which show to whom a 
command is given should be separated from the com- 
mand by a comma or by commas. 

Fill the blanks so as to ask questions, and place the 
proper mark after each : 

1. Shall \ 10. When was 



2. Who took care of you 11. Can such a thing 

when 12. Where will you go af- 

3. What does ter 

4. Which 13. Is this the prettiest color 

5. How many for 

6. Must he 14. Do you know what ■ 

7. How do you know that 15. in America 

16. to write sentences 



May I go to 17. Will you or he 

Why do we 18. How could 



Remember the value which some of these first words 
have in asking questions. Thus who means person ; 
what means thing; when means time; where means 
place; why means reason; and so on. 

Use the above question-words, and make interroga- 
tive sentences about: 



doll 


boy 


city 


apple 


cat 


pencil 


cart 


horse 


book 


slate 


home 


dog 



SENTENCES. 7 

Write sentences, asking Alice, Mary, Grace, Fannie, 
Cora, and Mattie to do something; then command them 
to do it. 

Join these words so as to make imperative sentences, 
and put the right mark after each : 

1. me, for, wait, Oril 

2. run, not, please, do, Harry, fast, so 

3. store, and, go, to, the, ribbon, some, buy, red 

4. all, to, you, Bertie, give, fast, hold, I 

5. evil, of, the, shun, appearance 

Join these words so as to make interrogative sen- 
tences, and put the right mark after each : 

1. some, fly, birds, high, can 

2. hat, man, she, a, has 

3. woods, in, are, birds, in, the, singing 

4. skate, go, me, Saturday, will, with, you, to, next 

5. want, you, many, do, how 

6. me, are, Christmas, going, drum, next, a, get, to, you 

7. school, after, play, out, ball, is, we, shall 

8. you, how, are, old 

9. that, coming, did, not, were, you, why, tell, you, me 

You may write five interrogative sentences, using in 
each the name of one of your schoolmates, and putting 
the proper marks where they are needed. 

You may write six imperative sentences, and in the 
first three give the name of the person commanded; 
omit it in the last three; and use the proper marks. 

Fill the blanks so as to make exclamative sentences, 
placing the proper mark at the end : 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



i. How pretty 
2. What fun — 



3. What a fine 



Remember, however, that a sentence may begin with 
how or what, and not be exclamative. Thus : 

How did you go ? 
What did you see ? 

Join these words so as to make exclamative sen- 
tences : 

1. rich, is, how, he 

2. has, what, eyes, she, pretty 

3. man, is, that, tall, very, how 

Copy these exercises, use capital letters and marks 
wherever they are needed, and tell what each sentence 
expresses, — whether it is declarative, imperative, inter- 
rogative, or exclamative : 

1. where have you been alice 7. what did you find to eat 

2. whose love equals a moth- 8. margie did you do that 

er's 9. what a sweet singer the 

3. come to me fido mocking-bird is 

4. torn, put down that cat 10. how hard it is to learn 

5. has she gone Albert these lessons 

6. please Mabel give me that 11. how dogs delight to bark 

rose 12. how much do you wish 

Change each of the following into one or more inter- 
rogative sentences : 

Model. — You are happy. Are you happy ? Why are you 
happyl How happy are you ? 



SENTENCES. 9 

i. It upset 4- Birds can sin g- 

2. You are going. 5. Roses are the most beauti- 

3. James, you have brought ml of flowers. 

the book. 6. Girls can skate. 

Change each of the following into an imperative sen- 
tence : 

Model. — Fido eats his dinner. Fido, eat your dinner. 
Frank, are you going to the store! Frank, go to the store, 

1. Children should obey their parents. 

2. The canary sings his best song for me. 

3. Baby will sleep a little longer. 

4. Nellie, are you going to walk up the hill? 

5. George, will you bring me the ink? 

6. Will you carry the basket, Emma ? 

7. Are you, Annie, laughing at me? 

§ 3. The Two Parts of a Sentence. 

Clara wept. 
Kittens play. 
Smoke rises. 

Who is spoken of in the first sentence? What is spo- 
ken of in the second? In the third? 

Which word shows what is said about Clara ? About 
kittens ? About smoke ? 

Every sentence may be thus divided into two parts : 
the part about which something is spoken or written, 
called the subject ; and the part which is spoken or 
written about the subject, called the predicate. 

Divide each of the following sentences into subject 
and predicate : 



IO FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Model. — Bees sting. This tells something, and therefore 
it is a declarative sentence. Bees tells what is spoken about ; 
therefore bees is the subject. Sting tells what is said about the 
subject; therefore sting is the predicate. 



I. 


Carthage fell. 


6. 


Rome remains. 


2. 


Gold glitters. 


7- 


Peter repented. 


3- 


Industry enriches. 


8. 


Art refines. 


4- 


Misery crushes. 


9- 


Hope cheers. 


5- 


Frogs hop. 


IO. 


Lions roar. 



The subject may be expressed by more than one 
word ; as, ' Poor, weak Peter repented/ 

The predicate may be expressed by more than one 
word ; as, ' Poor, weak Peter repented bitterly/ 

Make the following words subjects, by saying some- 
thing about the things which they denote : 



I. 


I 


9- 


the ship 


2. 


you 


IO. 


the river 


3- 


they 


ii. 


noisy boys 


4- 


we 


12. 


red roses 


5- 


he 


13- 


some large red apples 


6. 


the flowers 


14. 


very tall pine-trees 


7- 


the grass 


15- 


the other little girl 


8. 


the elephant 


16. 


her eyes 



Make the following words predicates by supplying 
subjects that shall include more than one word. 



1 . grows 

2. helps 



3. walk 

4. skate 

5. cackles 

6. was reading 



7. 


was caught 


8. 


have been killed 


9- 


has been trying 


10. 


were climbing 


11. 


eat nuts 


12. 


has a kite 



SENTENCES. II 

13. study their lessons 15. grows in the garden 

14. plays with a ball 16. was rowing the boat. 

In sentences of more than two words there are still 
two chief words, corresponding to the two chief ideas of 
the thought expressed ; and the others are looked upon 
as kelps to these. Thus : 



1. Horses 

2. Two horses 

3. Two large horses 

4. Two large black horses 

5. Two large black horses 

belonging to Mr. Smith 



ran 

ran swiftly 
ran very swiftly 
ran very swiftly across the field 
ran very swiftly across the field 
yesterday 



In the first sentence we have what may be called the 
bare subject and the bare predicate. The helping 
words in the second tell how many horses ran, and how 
they ran. The other helping words in the third tell of 
what size the horses were, and how fast they ran. The 
additional helping words in the fourth tell of what color 
the horses were, and where they ran. The helping 
words added to these in the fifth tell whose horses, and 
when they ran. 

Build up sentences like the above from each of the 
following : 



1 Children studv i What kindo{ child ren? Study what? 
~ ' '" y '\ Where? How? 

( Build what ? Where ? (Mention three 
2. Birds build. \ places.) What time of the year ? Of 
( what ? How ? 



12 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

3. Hay is made.-| 0f what? ^ whom? Where? In 
( what season ? Why ? 

!What kind? How many? By 
whom ? How ? For what pur- 
pose ? Where ? 

The subject may be implied, not expressed ; as in 
imperative sentences. Thus : 

Stop : that is, [You] stop. 
Look : that is, [You] look. 
Shut the door : that is, [You] shut the door. 

The marks around yon are called brackets. They 
are used to show that words which were not expressed 
have been supplied. 

In interrogative sentences the predicate contains at 
least two words, and the subject is oftenest placed be- 
tween them. Thus : 

Are you going ? 

Must I stay ? 

Do you blame me ? 

Did the black horse run down street ? 

That is : 



Subject. 


Predicate. 


You 

I 

You 

The black horse 


are going 

must stay 

do blame me 

did run down street 



SENTENCES. 1 3 

Copy the following sentences; draw a straight line 
under the bare subject, and a straight line under the 
bare predicate. When there are helping words, put curve 
lines around them, and state what these words tell us : 

1. (My) tree will bear (apples) (this fall). 

2. We must go. 

3. William can skate. 

4. A man can laugh at his own wit. 

5. You are running away. 

6. We must go by the road. 

7. I have some letters in the mail. 

8. Charles will go to college this month. 

9. Every rule is made for some good purpose. 

10. Harry may go fishing. 

11. Many fish are caught in the lake. 

Now make the foregoing sentences interrogative, and 
see where each subject stands. 

Ask questions with am, is, are, was, were, do, does, 
did, has, have, may, can, could, would ; and divide each 
sentence into its parts, as above. 

The usual order, which puts the subject before the 
predicate, is often changed, not only in interrogative 
sentences, but in others. Thus : 

Here ends the tale. 
There is no help for us. 
May nothing prevent you. 

In each of the following, put the subject first: 

1. Many are our faults. 6. Betwixt eyes and nose a 

2. Down the hill ran a little brook. strange contest arose. 

3. There was a dense fog. 7. How distant are the stars? 

4. May there be enough for all. 8. Were many there ? 

5. When shall we be free? 9. Out flew a bird. 



14 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



§ 4. Analysis and Diagramming. 

To pick out the parts of a sentence is to analyze it. 
To mark or denote the relations of these parts by lines 
is to diagram it. For this purpose let us join two 
straight lines by a link. Write the subject to the left of 
the link, and the predicate to the right. The link shows 
how the predicate is coupled to the subject. Thus: 




This tells or asserts something, and is therefore a de- 
clarative sentence. Boys shows what the assertion is 
about, and is therefore the subject. Play shows what is 
asserted (told), and is therefore the predicate. 

For each word in the first column make as many 
good-sense predicates as possible by joining words in 
the second and third columns; then analyze and dia- 
gram the resulting sentences according to the model : 



Acorns 


is 


woven 


Bells 


was 


growing 


Columbus 


may be 


numerous 


Corn 


are 


seen 


Summer 


have been 


rung 


Carpets 


has 


imprisoned 


Sparrows 


were 


come 


Comets 


could have been 


sprouting 



Words added to the bare subject to express kind, 
number, etc., may be writen under it. Thus: 
The angry wind is howling, 



SENTENCES. 1 5 



o- 



o^& 




A similar position will be given to words added to the 
bare predicate, and telling how, when, or where y etc. 
Thus: 

He spoke eloquently yesterday in Sunday-school. 



^^^^ ^^^>^-^y^^- 



The little mark which you see between the parts of 
the bare predicate in diagrams i, 2, 3, and 5, is called a 
hyphen. It shows that the words between which it is 
placed are to be considered as a unit or one word. 

Diagram the following : — 

1. The beautiful flower was crushed. 

2. The young man walked rapidly. 

3. The little boy is very good. 

4. Black clouds appear in the sky. 

5. All horses will eat oats. 

6. Shall we miss this sentence ? 

7. Good boys study grammar faithfully at home. 

In speech, the same thing may often be said of two 
or more things. Thus we can say: 



16 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Men were present. 
Women were present. 
Children were present. 

It is better, however, not to repeat the words that are 
alike, but to say, — 

Men, women, and children were present. 

Here are three things spoken about; that is, there are 
three name-words with one predicate. 

When two or more name-words have the same predi- 
cate, they form a compound subject. 

We can say : 

Empires rise. 
Empires flourish. 
Empires decay. 

But it is better to combine these several statements into 
a single sentence : 

Empires rise, flourish, and decay. 

Here are three things said about empires; that is, there 
are three stating words with one subject. 

When two or more stating words have the same sub- 
ject, they form a compound predicate. 

Again, several quality-words may be used along with 
the name of a thing. Thus we can say : 

Dear Nell was dead. 
Gentle Nell was dead. 
Patient Nell was dead. 
Noble Nell was dead. 

But it is much shorter to say : 

Dear, gentle, patient, noble Nell was dead. 



SENTENCES. 1 7 

In this sentence are several helping words, used along 
with the subject Nell, and telling of what sort or kind. 

Several words used in the same way, one after an- 
other, as in these examples, are called a series. 

Words in a series are separated from each other by 

commas. 

With only two words joined by and, use no commas, 
as, i Mary and Alice will go/ 

Make a single sentence out of each of the following 
sets of statements : 



1. 



( The owl eats mice. 
( The owl eats birds. 

5 The owl conceals itself in barns. 
The owl conceals itself in hay-lofts. 
The owl conceals itself in the hollows of old trees. 

! Washington was a good man. 
He was a noble man. 
He was a great man. 

He reads books 
He reads good books. 
He reads slowly. 
He reads silently. 
L He reads to improve his mind. 

5 Coal is hard. 
Coal is black. 
Coal is inflammable. 

{London is a large city. 
Paris is a large city. 
New York is a large city. 



1 8 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

I came. 

I saw. 

I conquered. 

« J Wolves hunt in packs. 
1 Wild dogs hunt in packs. 

Copy the following sentences, and place a comma or 
period where it is needed. Make no marks in your 
books : 

i. The moon has no water no atmosphere 

2. Lakes rivers hills and plains are beautiful 

3. They study reading spelling arithmetic and drawing 

4. Quails eat berries grain and small insects 

5. He was very tall straight and dignified 

6. He bought and sold horses and cattle 

Fill the blanks with words that will form a series and 
make sentences : 

1. and grow in summer. 

2. and die in winter. 

3. and revive in the spring. 

4. A cat has and . 



5. A rain will improve the and . 

6. and grew there. 

7. We saw and . 

8. Men live in and . 

Analyze and diagram the following sentences accord- 
ing to the model. Thus : 

Harry, Lucy, and I are learning rapidly. 

This tells something, and therefore it is a declarative 
sentence. Harry, Lucy, and / are the three things of 



SENTENCES. 



19 



which something is said, and therefore the subject is 
compound. Are lemming rapidly shows what is said of 
the subject, and is therefore the predicate. Rapidly is 
used along with the bare predicate, are learning, to tell 
how they are learning. 




a>u^ 



<£^lstfi~ 



The mark X denotes that an and is understood. This 
mark j is called a brace. 

2. The war began at Lexington, and ended at Yorktown. 

This sentence tells something, and therefore is a de- 
clarative sentence. War tells what is spoken of, and 
therefore war is the bare subject. Began and ended 
show what is told, and are the compound bare predicate. 
The, at Lexington, and at Yorktown are helping words. 
The first is a helping word of war ; the second, of 
began ; and the third, of ended. 




3. Does a farmer raise melons, fruits, and flowers? 



20 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



This sentence asks something, and therefore is an in- 
terrogative sentence. Farmer shows what is asked 
about, and therefore farmer is the bare subject. Does 
raise, etc., shows what is asked about the subject, and 
therefore it is the predicate. Does raise is the bare 
predicate. A, melons ; fruits, and flowers are helping 
words ; the first belonging to farmer, and the rest to 
raise. 



/ \ / 7. " ^ 



a 




Helping words used thus with the predicate to tell what, 
are written to the right of the verb and a little above. 
4. A brave, prudent, and honorable man was chosen. 



y^T^O^iy /U/ttJ 



7 



9- 
10. 
11. 
12. 




5. He rose, reigned, and fell. 

6. Time and tide never wait. 
Corn, tallow, flax, and hemp are exported from Russia. 
Owls fly low, and sleep on the ground. 
Do wheat, oats, and rye ripen together ? 
He bought a slate, a pencil, and some paper. 
A tall, straight, and dignified man came to the house. 
Have vou care and sorrow ? 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

CLASSES OF WORDS. 

§ i. Noun. 
Read these sentences : 

i. Cork floats. 

2. A good son obeys his parents. 

3. The man saw a rabbit. 

4. Father went to Boston. 

5. Make a picture of a rose. 

6. The boy had no pity for the girl. 

7. The usefulness of iron is very great. 

What word in the first sentence names something? 
What words in the second sentence are names? In the 
third? In the fourth? In the fifth? In the sixth? In 
the seventh? 

Can you see or touch a cork, a rabbit, a son? Can 
you also smell a rose? Can you see or touch or taste 
or smell or feel pity or usefulness? Can we think and 
speak about them? Which of these is the name of a 
feeling? Which is the name of a quality? 

Very many words are used in these ways to name 
things. All things that can be seen or thought of have 
names. Instead of names, we usually say nouns. Name 
and noun have the same meaning. Hence, 



22 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

A noun is the name of anything. 

Be careful not to confound a thing with its name. 
Suppose a book to be held up, and the question asked : 
'Is this a noun?' the proper answer would be, That 
thing is not a noun, but its name — the word ' book ' — 
is a noun. 

Tell something about : 

a cat a picture of a cat the word cat 

Write the names of three kinds of fruit that grow on 
trees. Of three that grow on bushes. Of three kinds 
of grain. Of three kinds of flowers. Who can write 
the names of the greatest number of things that are 
made of wood? of iron? of glass? of silver? of 
gold? Write or repeat four names of parts of a house; 
parts of the body ; feelings of your mind ; good quali- 
ties of persons. 

Select the nouns among the following words : 

i. nellie, for, wisely, Mary, tell, across, Bessie, when. 

2. hand, the, an, house, and, quill, school, of, dog, with, 
good, cat. 

3. rat, to, pin, stove, or, axe, hoe, nine, ten, horse. 

4. bird, story, up, off, sun, twenty, moon, went, down, star, in. 

5. broom, over, ran, grass, wheat, corn, bread, eat, meat. 

6. desk, think, small, apple, brick, shall, river, sell, peach. 

7. never, Boston, sober, the, Albany, declaim, Pittsburg. 

8. good, goodness ; soft, softness ; wicked, wickedness. 

9. The lark is up to meet the sun, 

The bee is on the wing, 
The ant its labor has begun, 
The woods with music ring. 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 23 

§ 2. Pronoun. 

In speaking of yourself, what little words save you 
the trouble of repeating your own name continually? 
If you were standing before the looking-glass, would 
you think and say, l Fannie sees Fannie,' or ' I see my- 
self ? ' If Mary were standing there with you, how 
would you say it? Not, 'Mary and Fannie see Mary 
and Fannie/ but ' We see ourselves.' This is much 
easier, and sounds better. 

Read these sentences : 



London is in England. 


1. 


It is a large city. 


Eva and Annie had a cat. 


2. 


They taught it tricks- 


Eva went to the picnic. 


3- 


She enjoyed it. 


Frank has a bad habit 


4- 


He smokes. 


Ellie had a coon. 


5- 


It bit him. 



What word is used for ' London ' ? What word in 2 
is used for ' Eva' and ' Annie ' ? What word for ' cat ' ? 
What word in 3 stands for ' Eva'? What word stands 
for < Frank ' ? What for ' Ellie ' ? What for 'coon ' ? 

Words thus used instead of names are called pro- 
nouns, because pro means for, and pro-noun means for 
a noun. Hence : 

Pronouns are words used for nouns. 

Read or copy the following, and put pronouns where 
they can be used instead of nouns : 

1. Mary has a book, and Mary is getting Mary's lesson. 

2. The scholars are coming ; the scholars have the scholars' 
books with the scholars. 



24 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

3. The dogs chased the fox, but the dogs did not catch the 
fox. The teacher told the boys that the teacher would read 
the boys a story if the boys would keep quiet. 

4. John went to see Jane, and John asked Jane if Jane 
would not come to John's father's house, and bring Jane's 
brother to see John. 

5. There is a girl too with a doll. The girl fears the girl's 
doll is sick ; so the girl shows the girl's doll to Tom, and Tom 
feels the doll's pulse. 

Use nouns for the pronouns in this story: 

A boy found a nest of young sparrows, and put them into his 
hat. He then set the hat on his head, thinking no one would 
know that they were under it. As he walked through the 
streets, instead of lifting his hat to bow to people, he held it fast 
upon his head. This made everybody wonder. At last one 
man said, ' Let me see if his hat has grown to his head.' Away 
went the sparrows as he lifted the hat from the boy's head. 
Everybody laughed ; and now, if a boy does not lift his hat 
when he meets people, they say, 'Perhaps he has sparrows 
under his hat.' 

Use each of these words as the subject of a sentence : 

I, it, we, he, they, she, you. 

The pronoun I should be a capital letter. 

Make sentences containing the pronouns: 

me, our, your, his, him, her, its, their, them. 

Read these sentences : 

Ida said, ' I am going home.' 
1 The boat is mine,' said Robert. 
Cora cried, ' Where is my Carlo ? ' 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 25 

What did Ida say? You may repeat the words of 
Robert. Repeat Cora's words. 

Words of others, repeated, are said to be quoted ; and 
the quoted words are a quotation. 

Notice the little marks that are placed before and 
after the quotations. These are called quotation- 
marks. 

Notice also that the quotation begins with a capital, 
and is separated from the rest of the sentence by a 
comma. 

Follow these rules in writing quotations : 

Use quotation-marks around quoted words. 
A quoted sentence should begin with a capital. 
A quoted sentence, if short, should be set off 
by a comma ; if long, by a colon ( : ) Thus — 

Charles Kingsley wrote these lines : 

6 Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; 
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long : 
And so make life, death, and that vast forever 
One grand, sweet song.' 

Fill the blanks with quotations : 

The Golden Rule is 

said Alice. 



Mary asked 

Frank's reply was 

Papa has often said to me 
cried John. 



26 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

§ 3. Adjective. 

What ink is meant by the word ink?- What people 
are meant by the word people? Which table do we 
mean by the word table? What apple does the word 
apple mean? 

Each of these names, standing alone, will apply to 
anything of its kind in the whole world. But if we say 
red ink, the word ink applies only to ink of this color ; 
that is, its meaning is made less by the use of the word 
red. If we say American people, the word people no 
longer means the people of France, of England, of 
Italy, and so on, but of our own country. If we say 
the round table or the second table, tables of any other 
shape (as square), or of any other order (as first, third, 
and so on), are excluded. 

Which applies to the greater number of things, the 
word apple, or yellow apple ? Which has the wider 
meaning, yellow apple, or large yellow apple? Do you 
see any difference between this apple and that apple, 
or between one apple and some apples? 

To change the meaning of a word in such a man- 
ner — that is, to make its meaning less general — is to 
limit, restrict, or modify it. 

A word that modifies the meaning of a noun or pronoun 
is an adjective. 

Usually the adjective precedes the noun or pronoun 
modified ; but instead of saying : 

1. The dark night, 2. Beautiful flowers, 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 27 

we can say: 

3. The night is dark, 4. Flowers are beautiful. 

That is, the idea expressed by the adjective may be 
assumed (as in 1 and 2), or it may be asserted (as in 
3 and 4). Because the asserted adjective shows what is 
said of the subject, it is also called predicate adjective. 

Remember that adjectives are merely helping words. 
They do not stand alone. Indeed, they are so called 
because they are added to a noun or pronoun to de- 
scribe (as bitter fruit) or point out (as the, this, or that 
book) the thing named. 

Select the nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the fol- 
lowing, first stating what the word tells us, then giving 
its class : 

Two little squirrels, a red one and a gray one, lived in the 
same woods. The gray squirrel was a very busy fellow, and 
gathered all his nuts in the fall, and laid them by for winter ; 
but the red squirrel ran about in the sunshine, and had a merry 
time springing about in the trees. It was all very well till 
winter came ; then the little red squirrel had to go to the gray 
one and beg a little food. * Ah ! ' said the gray squirrel, as 
he gave him some, 'next fall you will be much wiser, will 
you not? 7 

Fill the blanks with modifying words : 

1. The tree bears apples. (The tall tree bears 

sweet apples.) 

2. Do you like a apple better than a one ? 

3. boys quarrel, but boys do not. 

4. The elephant has ears and a trunk. 



28 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



The soldiers wear coat with — 

London is a city. 

My coat is made of cloth. 



5- 

6. 

7- 

8. This boy gave his sister a ■ 



9- 

TO. 



buttons. 



• apple. 



and 



The rose is a • 

This banker owns a 

— : — carriage drawn by 



flower. 

house, and rides in an 

horses. 



Write after each of the following adjectives one that 
has the opposite meaning: 



Boys may be 
good or — 
kind or — 



honest or — 
Apples may be 
sweet or 



ripe or 
large or 



mellow or — 
Pencils may be 

long or 

dull or 

whole or 

rough or 

soft or 



Girls may be 

timid or 

patient or — 
amiable or — 

Stones may be 

rough or 

heavy or 

hard or — 
thick or - 



ater may be 
shallow or — 

fresh or 

cold or ■ 



stagnant or 
clear or 



Copy the following sentences, and put periods, inter- 
rogation-marks, exclamation-marks, or commas where 
they are needed : 

i. The well is full of pure cold clear water 

2. Honor wealth duty and safety are the leading motives 

of men 

3. He was a brave pious and patriotic man 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 29 

4. How poor how rich how abject how august is man 

5. Is not the air very damp and unpleasant to-day 

Write or repeat sentences containing adjectives made 
by adding y to each of the following nouns : 

cloud, wind, rain, sleet, storm. 

Make adjectives by adding ly (meaning like) to each 
of these nouns, and use them in sentences : 

man, king, world, woman, saint, friend. 

Make adjectives from these nouns by adding ful, 
meaning full of: 

hate, need, use, rest, thought, peace, wonder. 

Add less, meaning loose from , or without : 
art, god, fear, hope, sin, heart, brain. 

Write un (meaning not) before each of the following, 
to give the words an opposite meaning : 

true, tidy, able, fit, welcome, kind. 

Before each of the following write in, im, ir, or il, 
whichever sounds best : 

possible, correct, perfect, regular, legal. 

Add en, meaning made of: 

gold, wool, oak, silk, wood. 



30 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

§ 4. Verb. 

Try to make a sentence about Edward by using only 
nouns, or pronouns, and adjectives. Can you do it? 
You find that you cai not. Now read : 

1. Edward writes. 6. The letter is written. 

2. The ball rolls. 7. The ball is rolled. 

3. The hen scratches 8. The ground is scratched. 

4. I am. 9. He sleeps. 

5. We are. 10. They /eel. 

Writes, rolls, scratches, tell what the subject does. Is 
written, is rolled, is scratched, tell what is done to the 
subject. Am and are express existence. Sleeps and 
feel tell, not what something does, but in what condi- 
tion, or state it is. They are all alike in this respect, — 
they say, tell, or assert. 

A great many words are used in this way. They 
form, by this likeness of use, a fourth class, and are 
called verbs. 

A verb is a word that asserts something about the sub- 
ject of a sentence. 

In sentences 6, 7, and 8, we see that the verb is com- 
posed of two words. We can also say: 

The ball will roll. The ball will have been rolling. 
The ball could roll. The ball has been rolled. 

If you are not sure whether a word is a verb, ask 
yourself, ' Can I make good sense by putting /, you, or 
he before it? ' If you cannot, it is not a verb. 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 3 1 

Be careful not to call the predicate adjective a verb ; 
as in the example, ' He is happy.' 

Select the verbs in the following, first telling of what 
subject each one asserts : 

Sam, a colored man, was once a cook on a ship. He saved 
some money and opened a coffee-house on the water front, 
where all the ships and steamers land. Sam had a parrot 
named Jack. He was a big bird with red and green feathers, 
and could talk very well. Jack used to sit in his cage, above 
the door of the coffee-house, and called out to people who 
passed that way : ' Hot coffee ! Who '11 have some coffee ? 
Step inside and get some. Only ten cents a cup.' His master 
had taught him to speak these words, so as to make business 
for the coffee-house. Sometimes Jack would say words he had 
learned himself, and seemed to like to make mischief. A man 
once left his horse and cart standing on the wharf near the 
water, and went into the coffee-house. While he was there 
drinking his coffee, Jack cried out to the horse : ' Back, sir ! 
back ! back, I say ! ' The horse thought his master was talk- 
ing to him, and so he backed until the cart went over the edge 
of the wharf and the horse fell into the water and was almost 
drowned, when some men pulled him ashore. Jack, the mis- 
chievous parrot, after playing this trick, was not permitted to 
perch above the door any longer, and his cage was taken into 
the coffee-house. 

Fill the blanks with suitable verbs : 

1. The dog at the cat, and she upon the wall. 

2. John into the house and the door. 

3. The deer over the fence. 

4. -The hunter the fox. 

5. The rat the cheese, but the boy him in a trap. 

6. The dog the boy , and the boy him for it. 

7. My sister and upon the piano. 



32 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

8. The farmer the ground and the wheat. 

9. The fire the fuel and our food. 

10. The sun in the east and in the west. 

11. The old bird seeds and them to her young 

ones. 

12. The lame man with a cane, which he in his 

right hand. 

13. The woodman the trees which in the forest. 

14. The boys at ball ; one of them the ball, an- 

other it with his bat, and a third one it. 

From the following lists of words write suitable sen- 
tences : 

ducks, shot a bird, shone, Ellen, quack, was caught, John, 
stars, can sing, that fish, he, the inkstand, burned its wings, will 
see the elephant, the dew, fell down, the moth, the cow, writes 
poems, is falling, he eats, grass, has come, was coming. 



§ 5. Adverb. 

The adjective, as we have seen, is used in connec- 
tion with the noun. Now in much the same way we 
find a great many words joined to the verb. Thus we 
may say: 

t. The ship sailed immediately or yesterday. 

2. The ship sailed slowly or rapidly. 

3. The ship sailed here, back, away, or everywhere. 

When did the ship sail? How did it sail? Where did 
it sail ? Again, we may say : 

4. The very heavy ship sailed fairly well. 






CLASSES OF WORDS. 33 

What word tells how heavy? What kind of a word 
is heavy? Does well tell how the ship sailed? What 
word tells how well? 

Observe that in sentences 1, 2, and 3 the modifiers 
are joined directly to the bare subject or the bare predi- 
cate; while in the fourth sentence one modifier is joined 
to another, — very to ' heavy,' and fairly to 'well/ 

Words thus used to tell how, when, or where ? 
form a fifth class. They are oftenest joined to verbs, 
and hence are called ad-verbs. This name means 
simply to-a-verb. 

An adverb is a word used to limit the meaning of a 
verb, an adjective, or an adverb. 



Fill the blanks with adverbs : 



I. 


The sun will rise 


2. 


Wait for me 


3- 


She recited 


4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 


He has been reproved 

A lovely day. 

Mary sings well. 

The crowd cheered — 


8. 
» 

9- 
0. 


is he going so — — ? 

We were surprised by a 

You should listen attentively. 



(When?) 
(Where?) 
(How?) 
(How often.) 



cordial welcome. 



Make sentences containing adverbs formed by adding 
ly to each of the following adjectives. Change final y 
to i> and drop le from those ending in ble : 



pure 


beautiful 


vile 


soft 


handsome 


feeble 


tender 


musical 


busy 



34 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



pretty 
lucky- 



merry 
coy 



peaceable 
funny 



Put corresponding adverbs for the adjectives in these 
sentences : 



I. 


He is a swift writer. 


He writes 


2. 


Her singing was sweet. 


She sang 


3- 


Their failure was complete. 


They failed 


4- 


Jack is 2, fast swimmer. 


Jack can swim 


5- 


Your labors were successful. 


You labored 


6. 


Tom had a heavy fall. 


Tom fell 


7- 


His sufferings must have 


He must have suffered 




been severe and long. 


and 


8. 


My suspicions were correct. 


I suspected 


9- 


We took a j/y peep. 


We peeped 


IO. 


I gave him a steady look. 


I looked at him. 


ii. 


The ze//fo/<? blame was his. 


He was to blame, 


12. 


He showed true sorrow. 


He was sorry. 



Diagram the following sentences : 
i. A peculiarly interesting story was told. 




2. So brave an act can never be too warmly commended. 






/n&v&i/ 



/WtZA^ 



Atv 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 
3. Shall I not help him? 



6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 
10. 
11. 
12. 

13. 
14. 



35 



•72* 



<&£ 



4. How impatiently the ship tosses herself. 





g/Ztwi' 



5. This is too often true. 



OJ 



stds- 



-sfouz' 



The fire burns brightly. 

Its brightness had quite disappeared. 

I was much happier. 

Does he speak promptly and distinctly? 

The paper is published daily. 

Hereafter, we will write frequently. 

Will you go there often ? 

He did not ride gracefully yesterday. 

Do not play there to-day. 

Is this very excellent magazine issued monthly? 



36 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Where an adverb (as not or never) is in the middle 
of the verb, be careful not to call the adverb a part of 
the verb. Thus, in * I cannot go,' the verb is can go; 
not is an adverb denying the statement. 



§ 6. Preposition. 
Let us now examine the following: 

c ) 

The pencil may be found J V the book. 

v under / 

The book with the ribbon in it belongs to the hoy at the 
head of the class. 

If we here try to omit the little words in, on, by, tinder, 
with, to, at, and of, we shall see how hard it is to make 
sentences without them and others of their kind. They 
do not name things, nor do they tell what things do. 
They modify nothing, but they enable us to express 
relations. Thus : 

may be found on the book, 
book with the ribbon, 
ribbon in it, 
belongs to the boy, 
boy at the head, 
head of the class, — 

on shows the relation between i book ' and l may be 
found;' in, between 'it' and ' ribbon;' to, between 






CLASSES OF WORDS. 37 

s boy ' and ' belongs ; ' at, between ' head ' and ' boy ; f 
of, between ' class ' and * head/ 

Such words, since they are commonly placed before 
the noun or pronoun which they relate to other words, 
are called prepositions. 

The noun or pronoun following the preposition is 
called the object. The preposition and its object is 
called an adjunct. 

Adjuncts, if they modify nouns (or pronouns) are 
adjectives : ' a man of wealth ; ' that is, ' a wealthy man/ 
They are adverbs if they modify adjectives : ' a girl fond 
of dress ;' ' medicine goodjfor the fever! They are ad- 
verbs likewise if they modify verbs, and tell where, when, 
why, or how. 

Notice that there may be adjectives or other words 
between the preposition and its object; as, 'They all 
live in one little log house! Ask yourself ' In what?' 
and the answer will be not ' in one,' nor t in little/ nor 
1 in log/ but ' in house! The object of a preposition 
always answers a question consisting of the preposition 
and what or whom. 

Try to remember what preposition is to be correctly 
used with certain words and meanings. Thus, say : 

accuse of 

adapted to 

arrive in or at 

attended, accompanied, by (that which has life) 

attended, accompanied; with (things without life) 

call at (a place) 

call on (a person) 



38 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

compare with (in respect to quality) 

compare to (for illustration) 

correspond with (by letter) 

correspond to (to agree) 

die of (disease) 

die by (an instrument) 

die for (another) 

differ from (in opinion) 

differ with (to quarrel) 

divide between (two persons) 

divide among (more than two) 

preferable to 

similar to 

sympathize with 

wait for (to await) 

wait on (to visit, to demand) 

worthy of 

Make sentences containing the above. 

Fill the blanks with suitable prepositions, point out 
the related words, and tell to what class the adjunct 
belongs. Thus, on shows the relation between the noun 
donkey and the verb was riding ; therefore it is a prepo- 
sition On a donkey modifies was riding, and denotes 
how ; therefore it is an adverb : 

An old man was once riding a donkey. His son was 

walking his side. 'You are a lazy fellow/ said the first 

stranger that met them ; l why do you not put the boy the 

donkey ? The old man got down the donkey and set the 

boy his place ; but before they had gone many yards, an- 
other stranger cried out, ' What a shameful thing i That strong 
young fellow is riding, while this old man is his legs. Get 






CLASSES OF WORDS. 39 

down, young man.' So the old man took his son the 

donkey, and all three walked, man, boy, and donkey. As they 

passed the next village, all the villagers laughed them 

and shouted, ' Why do you not both mount the donkey? ' 

When they heard this, they both got up, the old man before 

and the young man him. But when they had come 

the village, and a little way it, two travellers shouted 

them, i Look at those two big strong fellows one poor 

little donkey. They ought to carry the donkey, for certainly 
the donkey cannot carry them.' Again the old man got off, 

and great difficulty they fastened the donkey a stout 

pole, and thus carried him them their shoulders. 

But the next village the people ran out to see the ridicu- 
lous sight, and the laughter was louder than ever. Then the 

young man said his father, 6 Had we not better try to 

please ourselves? for it seems impossible to please everybody.' 

Diagram the following sentences : 
1. My doll came from Paris. 



st?urt4> /CtZ>??Z£s 



(/%y~ ^^7^ny\(y^L 



/ ^asus 



2. The little brook ran swiftly under the bridge. 



^a^ny 




C/^fie/ X^u^vc^y ^i^t^f^y^ ^^^n^uAy^ 



^£%£/ 



4Q 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



3. The laurels of the warrior must at all times be dyed in 
blood. 



/Wl&ld^, 



OC/i£y 



-yi^zz^yU^r" 




^t^?y. 



4. Were not the finest cherries on the big tree picked for his 
particular benefit? 



sC. 



/W&leA. 



&rf 



vslite/ snstyr 



2£_ 



wz^ y 



?aJ 



5. A fine landscape lay before us. 

6. The work before us was full of danger. 

7. The boys slid down the hill on their sleds. 

8. The pig crawled under the fence into the field. 

9. An extravagantly high price was paid for that dress. 

10. Is not the capital of New York situated on the Hudson? 



§ 7. Conjunction. 
Let us notice a few such statements as the following 



The moon shines. The stars shine. 

He was an honest boy. He was an industrious boy. 

He was a bright boy. He was a mischievous boy. 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 41 

He goes to school. He does not learn his lesson. 
You will not reap. You do not sow. 
This wood is so heavy. It will not float. 

We might express ourselves in this manner, but it 
would be much better to say: 

1. The moon and the stars shine. 

2. He was an honest and industrious boy. 

3. He was a bright but mischievous boy. 

4. He goes to school, but he does not learn his lesson. 

5. You will not reap //"you do not sow. 

6. This wood is so heavy that it will not float. 

Words thus used to join sentences are called conjunc- 
tions. As a result of this union> the conjunction appears 
sometimes, like the preposition, to join words, as in 1, 
2, and 3. Moon and stars is a compound subject; hon- 
est and industrious, bright but mischievous, are compound 
modifiers. 

If you are doubtful whether a certain word is a prepo- 
sition or a conjunction, think whether it connects or can 
connect two statements. The office of the conjunction 
lies in its power to connect sentences. Remember, too, 
that the adjunct based on the preposition is not a clause, 
and yet is a modifier. 

In the use of conjunctions, think carefully of the sense 
of the parts to be joined. Thus : 

/how \ 

I asked J w > he was going. 

v why / 



42 



I liked him < 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



and 

after 

before 

when 

for 

since 






j> he liked me. 



because 
therefore 



I like him •< ^ ut , \- he dislikes me. 



' but \ 
though ) 



Conjunctions are often preceded by corresponding 
words. Try to remember the following pairs : 



Both — 
Either — 
Neither ■ 



Whether 



and : 



or : 
- nor 



So — 
So — 

As — 
As — 
Such 



that : 
as : 
so : 
as : 
— as ; 



He is both smart and good. 
Say either yes or no. 

The boy is neither at home nor in school, 
or : I do not know whether I shall or I shall 
not go. 
It is so dark that I can hardly see. 
He is not so tall as I. 
As you go, so will I. 
Mine is as good as yours. 
I bought such things as I needed. 



A number of words which, taken together, have the 
power of joining, form a conjunctional phrase : 

He cried as //"his heart would break. 
I like him inasmuch as he likes me. 



A conjunction is a word used to connect either sentences or 
words used in the same way in the sentence. 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 43 

Fill the blanks with suitable conjunctions: 

1. John James will assist you, you request it. 

2. Boys girls recite in the same class. 

3. I cannot walk, '■ I can ride. 

4. He is afflicted, he is happy. 

5. Do not go near the cars, you will get injured. 

6. dead, he yet liveth. 

7. Charles XII. acted he were mad. 

8. See you carve out your own fortune, you 

would have any. 

9. the ruby the diamond are more valuable 

the emerald. 

10. Wellington Bliicher was singly a match for 

Napoleon ; together they overthrew him, 

shaped the destinies of Europe. 

11. Winter soon passes, spring returns. 

12. His brother came, he did not remain. 

13. The scholar was late he had played on his way. 

14. His little brother sister were not able to read 

to write. 

15. The lame boy cannot run play as you I can. 

16. James was a good boy, he could not learn his 

lesson so well his classmates. 

1 7. Boys bait their hooks with flies worms. 

18. Study now, you will not always have a chance to 

do so. 

19. Our words our deeds should always agree. 

20. Let your words be few to the point. 

Pick out the conjunctions, and tell whether they join 
words or sentences. Mention also the prepositions : 

Some cows were standing in the barnyard, when one of them 
lifted her foot and accidentally kicked the cow behind her. 



44 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

The one that had been kicked was so angry that she lifted her 
foot and kicked the one behind her, thinking she had done it. 
The third kicked a fourth, and the fourth kicked the one be- 
hind her ; and in a few minutes ail the cows were kicking and 
plunging about angrily, and not one of them knew how the 
trouble began. 



§ 8. Interjection. 

In the sentence, ' He, alas ! will forget your kind- 
ness/ what is asserted? Do you understand the speaker 
to regret that he will forget your kindness? What word 
gives you that idea? Is this word necessary to make 
the assertion. What, then, is alas used for? To express 
sudden or strong feeling. 

Other words are in this manner thrown into the midst 
of a sentence to express sudden feeling, but have no 
real connection with the words about them. They are 
called interjections. This name comes from inter, 'be- 
tween/ and jacere, ' to throw/ 

An interjection is a word thrown into a sentence to express 
deep or sudden feeling. 

What mark is used after an interjection? 
Use the following in sentences : 

oh ! ah ! hurrah ! pshaw ! 

Diagram the following: 

i. Ah ! I am surprised at the news. 



CLASSES OF WORDS. 



45 



(a&<) 



sarn/^utsl 



'/n&itK/ 



2. Oh, how very warm it is ! 



^/-/ZtszZs^WZ' 



/V&te/ 



Bravo ! bravo ! do not fear. 
Umph ! I guess at it. 
Pshaw ! my pen is broken. 
To-whit ! to-whit ! to-whee ! 
Will you listen to me ? 



Thus our many thousand words are grouped, with 
respect to their use in the sentence, into eight classes. 
Since each has a share or part with other words in 
making speech, these eight classes are called parts of 
speech. 

The noun, the pronoun, and the verb are principal. 
The others may be divided into : 

Modifiers adjective, adverb. 

Connectives preposition, conjunction. 

Emotion words interjection. 



46 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Telling to which of the eight parts of speech each 
word in a sentence belongs, and its relation to other 
words, is called parsing. 

Parse the words in the following. First explain the 
use of the word. Does it name something? Does it 
stand for a name? Does it assert? Is it subject or 
predicate? Does it modify a noun or a pronoun? If 
so, it is an adjective. Does it tell the how> when, where, 
or why of a verb? If so, it is an adverb. Does it 
modify, throw its force upon, an adjective or an adverb? 
Does it show the relation of a noun or pronoun to some 
other word? Does it, or can it, join statements? Is it 
thrown in among other words by way of exclamation? 

LITTLE ORIL'S FANCIES. 

O little flowers ! you love me so. 

You could not do without me ; 
O little birds, that come and go ! 

You sing sweet songs about me. 

O little moss, observed by few, 
That round the tree is creeping ! 

You like my head to rest on you 
While I am idly sleeping. 

O rushes by the river side ! 

You bow when I come near you ; 
O fish ! you leap about with pride 

Because you think I hear you. 

O river ! you shine clear and bright 

To tempt me to look in you ; 
O water lilies, pure and white ! 

You hope that I shall win you. 



WORDS VARIOUSLY USED. 47 



CHAPTER III. 

WORDS VARIOUSLY USED. 

It should always be remembered that what fixes the 
class of a word is the way in which it is used. The 
same word by a change of use — that is, by a change of 
meaning — becomes a different part of speech. Thus: 

1 . A calm succeeds the storm. 

2. It was a calm day. 

3. They calm his fears. 

In the first sentence, calm is the subject, the name 
of a state of weather; therefore it is a noun. In the 
second, it modifies a noun, denotes the kind of day; 
therefore it is an adjective. In the third, it asserts; 
therefore it is a verb. 

The word like, again, is here used in four different 
ways: 

1 . As a noun : I never saw the like before. 

2. As an adjective : Make like spaces between the lines. 

3. As a verb : You may go or stay, as you like. 

4. As a preposition : He stares like an idiot. 

There is considerable interchange among the three 
classes of words, — adverb, preposition, and conjunc- 
junction : 



48 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Preposition : He has not eaten since yesterday. 

Conjuftction : Since he is here, I will go. 

Adverb .« He has not since been seen. 

Adjective : She is but a girl. (only) 

Adverb : If we go, we can but die. {only) 

Preposition : All but him died. (except) 

Conjunction : He heard, but he heeded not. 

Finally, any word used as the name of itself, is a 
noun. Thus : 

There is an if in the way. 

Parse the first as in the sentence. 

Have you spelled the correctly? 

You see clearly from these examples that in order to 
parse a word you must first decide how it is used. 
Parse the italicized words : 

i. I shall call in an hour. 

2. He could not hold in his horse. 

3. He fell ^(his horse). 

4. The pleader strained his leg. 

5. I have no silver. 

6. He is no better. 

7. You may stay, as it is raining. 

8. My book is as clean as yours. 

9. An only son. 

10. I have only two. 

11. The very thing. 

12. You are very late. 

13. I saw him then. 

14. Am I then to stay? 

15. I like him, yet he avoids me. 

16. The crime is made yet blacker by the pretence of piety. 
He stands above us. 



i7 






WORDS VARIOUSLY USED. 49 

18. He lay above. 

19. Is that for me? 

20. He went, for he was ready. 

2 1 . The vases stand upon the stand. 

22. I saw the .raze/. 

23. They look with an eager /##/&. 

24. He fell into a well, not z#<f// covered, and has not been 

well since. 

25. He rode fo/^/r the lines before the battle began. 

26. I say //W such conduct is ft only for a madman. 

2 7. You J0// in that small boat with a .ra// //to might y£/ a 
big ship. 



50 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EQUIVALENTS. 

Strong men. Men of strength. 

A thorny bush. A bush with thorns. 

Study diligently. Study with diligence. 

The storm grows wilder. The storm is growing wilder. 

DOES of strength denote the same idea as strong ? 
Two or more words that do the work of a single word 
are called the equivalent of it. 

What is the equivalent of thorny? Of diligently? 
Of grows? 

Which of the equivalents are adjuncts? 

Does it make any difference whether you read these 
equivalents backwards or forwards? Do the words of 
each seem to be related in a certain order? 

A phrase is a group of related words that does not include 
subject or predicate, and has the signification of a single part 
of speech : 

to love, on the right side, 

to have been loved, having seen them home, 

was loving, to be deplored. 

An adjunct (as ' on the right side') is a prepositional 
phrase. Since a phrase may do the work of a noun, an 



EQUIVALENTS. 5 1 

adjective, or an adverb, we have noun-phrases, adjective- 
phrases, and adverbial phrases : 

i. To write well requires care. 

2. Rowing a boat is good exercise. 

3. The desire to excel is praiseworthy. 

4. The man in the moon came down too soon. 

5. The book lying on the table is mine. 

6. He is fond of fishing for trout. 

7. The little bird flew over the roof. 

To write well and rowing a boat are the things of 
which something is asserted ; and therefore we may call 
them noun-phrases. To excel, in the moon, and lying 
on the table, modify nouns ; therefore they are adjective 
phrases. Of fishing for trout modifies the adjective 
' fond,' and over the roof tells where, therefore they are 
adverbial phrases. 

Select the prepositional phrases in the sentences 
above. 

A phrase that does the work of a verb, is a verb- 
phrase : 

She goes to school Verb. 

She is going to school ) 

She has been going to school . . . . \ Verb-phrases. 



She should have been going to school . 



:/ 



Verb-phrases are often called verbs. Hence we may 
say that a verb is an asserting word or phrase. 

A clause is a group of words containing subject and predi- 
cate and doing the work of a single part of speech. 



52 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Thus: 

i. How we shall succeed is a question. 

2. ' 1 will try ' has wrought wonders. 

3. A pupil who tries will generally succeed. 

4. The fact that you tvere late is evident. 

5. He works that he may succeed. 

6. I will go when you are ready. 

In sentences 1 and 2, the clause is that of which some- 
thing is said ; and therefore it does the work of a noun. 
In 3 and 4, the clause modifies a noun, — shows what 
pupil, what fact; therefore it is an adjective. The 
clause in 5 tells why, and that in 6 tells when; there- 
fore they are adverbs. 

In each of these sentences there are two assertions. 
The clause is the subordinate, or dependent, asser- 
tion. The modified assertion is principal, or inde- 
pendent. The whole sentence is called complex. 

If neither assertion modifies the other, the whole 
sentence is called compound : 

The boys read, and the girls write. 
He came, but he did not conquer. 

Being of the same rank with respect to each other, 
such assertions are co-ordinate. Sometimes the con- 
junction is omitted: 

He raised his gun, the trigger clicked, and the hammer fell. 

The compound sentence is often contracted, giving, 
as we have seen, merely a compound subject or a 



EQUIVALENTS. 53 

compound predicate. This happens when two or 
more clauses contain a common term. Thus, instead 
of saying : 

He escaped from Elba, and he landed in the South of France, 

we say : 

He escaped from Elba, and landed in the South of France. 

Try to remember the following definitions : — 

1. A simple sentence is one that contains but one subject 
and one predicate: 

Gold is yellow. j (Declarative.) 

He has not come. ) 

Have you returned so soon? . (Interrogative.) 

Go back to your place. . . . (Imperative.) 

How softly she walks ! . . . (Exclamative.) 

2. A complex sentence is one that contains a principal 
assertion and one or more clauses : 

He was gone before I arrived. (Declarative.) 

Why did you not come when you were called? (Interrogative.) 

Go where you can be happy (Imperative.) 

How happy we were when we were boys ! . . (Exclamative.) 

3. A compound sentence is one consisting of two or more 
co-ordinate or principal assertions : 

It rained, and we returned (Declarative.) 

Has she gone, and will she return ? .... (Interrogative.) 

Go, but do not stay (Imperative.) 

How poor he is, and how rich are they ! . . (Exclamative.) 



54 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



4. A sentence which is, as to use, partly of one kind, and 
partly of another, is called a mixed sentence : 

Go to the ant, and she will teach thee to be wise. 

The first part of this sentence is imperative, the sec- 
ond is declarative, and the whole is therefore a mixed 
sentence. 

Tell whether the following are phrases, clauses, or 
sentences, giving the reason why: 



I. 


After lesson-time. 


IS- 


The advocate addressed 


2. 


School is now over. 




the court. 


3- 


Going home to dinner. 


16. 


I did lift the key. 


4- 


After dinner we shall go to 


17. 


To confess the truth. 




bathe. 


18. 


War was declared. 


5- 


How warm the water is ! 


19. 


Which I always keep holy. 


6. 


Plunge in. 


20. 


To be a citizen of a free state. 


7- 


Not beyond your depth. 


21. 


But the time had not come. 


8. 


Let us return. 


22. 


Reflected by the water. 


9- 


Are you dressed already? 


23- 


When the sunbeam struck 


io. 


In a hurry to get home. 




into the room. 


ii. 


Having our lessons to pre- 


24. 


On the opposite side. 




pare. 


2 5- 


Where rabbits burrow. 


12. 


Good luck to you ! 


26. 


That the dead are there. 


I 3- 


Having arranged his pa- 


27. 


That good men often com- 




pers. 




mit faults, cannot be de- 


14. 


On behalf of his client. 




nied. 



Tell whether the following sentences are simple, com- 
plex, or compound, stating why: 



1. They breakfasted at nine o'clock. 

2. The bride kissed the goblet, the knight took it up. 



EQUIVALENTS. 55 

3. He dashed aside the falling tear. 

4. I came because you wished me to do so. 

5. The enemy's squadrons broke and fled. 

6. No sounds of labor vexed the quiet air. 

7. He is the freeman whom the truth makes free ; and all 

are slaves besides. 

8. To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, I turn. 

9. The reason is so clear that it needs no explanation. 

10. A word to the wise 
Will always suffice. 

1 1 . Come again to-morrow, and we will give you more. 

12. The queen and the prince entered. 

Contract these compound sentences into simple ones : 

1. The boy laughs, and the boy cries. 

2. The officer escaped, and his companion escaped. 

3. Neither Peter writes nor James writes. 

4. Nelson attacked the combined fleets, and Nelson de- 

feated them. 

5. I wrote to you, therefore by writing my object was 

attained. 

6. He built a large house, but he did not build an elegant 

house. 

7. Meet your difficulties boldly, and meet your difficulties 

honestly. 

8. A piece of chalk will do, or a pencil will do. 

9. Come by the boat, or come by the train. 

Tell whether the italicized parts are phrases or clauses, 
and whether they are used as nouns, as adjectives, or as 
adverbs; give reasons: 

1. To be anxious is useless. 

2. That he is in error is certain. 



56 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

3. I like a rascal to be punished. 

4. £F/W «■ done cannot be undone. 

5. Whether he meant what he said, is hard to determine. 

6. Walking to school is being injuriously superseded by 

riding thither in trains and omnibuses. 

7. The monkey with the long tail. 

8. The monkey that has a long tail. 

9. A man without prificiple. 
1 o. A man of honor. 

1 1. The book belonging to my uncle. 

12. The business in which I am engaged. 

13. The painter of that celebrated picture. 

14. This is an action to be deplored. 

15. It sings very sweetly. 

16. We are ready to die. 

Combine the statements of each set into one sentence, 
and tell what kind of a sentence it is : 

/ The Vandals left the uplands. 
J The Sueves left the uplands. 
j The Burgundians left the uplands. 
v They left early in the fifth century. 

/The Vandals and Sueves pressed into Spain. 
) They formed a kingdom. 
* \ This kingdom was in the northwest corner of Spain. 
\ It did not last long. 

It did not sink 
I held it. 

( The cow supplies us with milk. 
4- \ Cheese and butter are obtained from milk. 
( The cow is a very useful animal. 






5-< 



EQUIVALENTS. 57 

Cotton is gathered from the pod of a plant. 

It is cleaned from the seed. 

It is sent to the manufacturer. 

He makes it into thread or yarn. 

He also makes it into cloth. 

He does this by the help of machinery. 



Make a story by answering the following questions : 

Who? — Charlie and Margie. 

What relation were they ? — Brother and sister. 

How old were they? 

What did they do ? — They went to the woods. 

When ? 

Why? 

Did they find many ? 

What kinds ? 

What did they do with them ? 

How long were they gone ? 

Now tell to what class each sentence of your story 
belongs. 

Write a story from the following outline ; tell to what 
class each of your sentences belongs ; mention prepo- 
sitional phrases, and clauses; and tell what part of 
speech each such modifier is: 

Charlie and Margie at the river; Charlie fishing; Margie 
gathering flowers ; Charlie hears a scream ; Margie has fallen 
into the river ; Charlie finds a branch of a tree ; very heavy ; 
puts forth all his strength ; pushes it towards her ; it floats 
down to her ; seizes it ; Charlie runs for help ; returns with 
his father ; jumps in and brings Margie to the shore ; is car- 
ried to the house ; soon recovers ; Charlie showed ' presence 
of mind.' 



58 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Pick out the verb-words and verb-phrases in the fol- 
lowing story : 

A fox that had once lost his tail in a trap was not pleased 
that his companions should have tails while he was tail-less. 
So he called them all together and said, 'Look at me, I am 
not burdened, as you are, with a long bushy mass that serves 
no purpose except to clean the ground behind you. You will 
never beat me in a race as long as you bear this burden, and 
I do not bear it. If you are wise, you will no longer wear 
these useless weights ; and I can show you how to cut them 
off in a moment. ' The younger foxes listened admiringly, and 
were all of them ready to cut off their tails. But a wise old fox 
got up and said, ' That is all very well, Mr. Tail-less ; but you 
have not yet told us how you came to cut off your tail, and I 
will frankly admit I greatly suspect a trap had something to do 
with it. At all events, you did not find out that a tail so en- 
cumbered you while you had a tail, and I shall always believe 
that, if ever your tail grows again, you will not cut it off.' 

Diagram the following sentences : 

i. To steal is base. 



2. To be or not to be is the question. 



^-/a^£*d^t>n<' 









EQUIVALENTS. 
3. The train started before sunrise. 



59 



-<z> 



c^ 




^di^r?yUAey 



4. The train of forty freight-cars started before the sun rose. 



^Uz^n/ ^Z^a4A6^ 



\oCnes / ^f > x ^co4J ^ 




-iftrtfy sfuj^hJ- 


% ^Utw Arties 


/ - / / 


sCAc 



5. The sun rose, and the train started. 



^l^fyyu 




A^d^ 


dz. 






/6i&U^?/ 


^Z^lZe^ 



60 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

6. That he will succeed in his enterprise is quite certain. 



• ^Z^l_ /ZJA^^-^^^CZg^ 








^7^ x 4^^Usly/^UtUs 








^ruLj 


"tZi&C^l/ 






siJ yce 













7. His reply was that he would return to Boston because he 
had failed in business. 




8. The infirmities of nature are common. 

9. I will go, since you are afraid. 

10. It stood by the river of the tree of life. 

n. Are you going to the city or to the country? 

12. Tarry till I come. 

13. Why he left so suddenly is not clear. 

14. Her answer was, ' Seven are we.' 

15. The queen entered, and the prince followed. 

16. No flowers are seen in the garden, and every leaf has 
gone from the trees. 

1 7. The round harvest moon has risen before the sun has 
set. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 6 1 



CHAPTER V. 

SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 

§ i. Kinds of Nouns. 

EACH of the eight great classes of words may be 
divided into other classes. Suppose that three boys of 
your acquaintance are playing in the street, and that 
you wish to speak with one of them. If you say, 
' Come here, boy, 1 they may stop and look, but will not 
know which one is called, because boy is a name com- 
mon to them all; but if you say, ' Come here, Robert/ 
they will know who is meant, and Robert comes, be- 
cause this name distinguishes him from the others : it 
is his proper name, and does not belong to the rest of 
the party, like the common name boy. 

Again, if somebody says to you, ' I live in a city,' do 
you know where he lives? You do not, because there 
are a great many cities. But if he says, ' I live in 
Boston/ do you know where he lives? You do, because 
Boston is the name of a particular city. 

So you see there are two kinds of names or nouns, 
common and proper. Common means general, or be- 
longing to more than one. Proper means one's own, or 
belonging to only one. 



62 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

A common noun is a name that may be applied to any one 
of a number of things of the same class or kind. 

A proper noun is the name of an individual of a class. 

Pick out the nouns, tell whether they are common or 
proper, first giving the reason why. 

Model. — Frank left his book in the house, Frank is the 
name of an individual, therefore it is a proper noun. Book 
and house are names that may be applied to any one of a class 
or kind of things, therefore they are common nouns. 

i. God has made a star. 

2. He cut his finger with a sharp knife. 

3. Cows eat grass and give us milk. 

4. King Solomon built the temple of Jerusalem. 

5. This picture is taken from a painting by Dyce. 

6. A photograph is a picture made by the light of the sun. 

7. No hand of man could fashion so faithful a likeness. 

8. By the telegraph we send messages with the quickness of 
lightning to distant places. 

9. The year 1866 witnessed the final triumph of telegraphy 
in the establishment of subaqueous connection between the Old 
World and the New. 

10. Telegraph-lines now stretch across the Atlantic from the 
southwest corner of Ireland to the island of Newfoundland and 
the continent of America. 

11. Already the electric wires run from Great Britain east- 
ward to Constantinople and India, from Norway to the shores 
of Africa. 

12. The greater part of Europe and of North America is 
netted over with them; a considerable part of Australia, and 
a portion of Africa. 

13. Thanks to the skill, energy, and perseverance of a few 
master-minds, the problem of girdling the earth is now practi- 
cally solved. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 63 

14. The names of Thomson, Field, Canning, Cooke, Glass, 
Wheatstone, and Captain Anderson, of the steamship ' Great 
Eastern,' are imperishably associated together in the great 
crowning achievements of the telegraphic art. 

In the preceding sentences pick out the adjectives, 
words, and phrases that modify nouns. Tell also the 
adverbial phrases. 

Make sentences containing the following proper 
nouns. Let six of the sentences be complex, and six 
compound : 

Names of Months. 

Sunday. 

Monday. Thursday. 

Tuesday. Friday. 

Wednesday. Saturday. 

New Year's Day. Declaration of Independence. Easter. 
Fourth of July. Christmas. Thanksgiving Day. 

Names of Months. 



1. January. 


4. April. 


7. July. 


10. October. 


2. February. 


5. May. 


8. August. 


11. November. 


3. March. 


6. June. 


9. September. 


12. December. 



What is the difference between Helen and girl; be- 
tween Bible and book; between States and United States? 

There may be several words in a name ; as * James 
Russell Lowell/ * Declaration* of Independence,' ' Ara- 
bian Nights' (the name of a book). 

The full name of a person is made up of the Chris- 
tian name, or that given to each child, and the family 



64 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

name. A long time ago a father was called a sire ; and 
because the family name is the father's name, it was 
called the sire-name. This came to be written first, 
'sirname;' then '^rname.' 

The first letter of a word is called its initial. 
Sometimes the initials are used instead of the name 
of a person ; as H. W. L., for ' Henry Wadsworth Long- 
fellow/ Often the surname is written, and the initials 
of the rest of the name are used ; as B. Franklin, R. W. 
Emerson. Frequently the surname is written, and the 
initial only of the middle name is used; as John G. 
Whittier. 

Brief means short ; to abbreviate a word is to shorten it : 

Sept. for September ; N. Y. for New York. 

The shorter form of a word is called an abbreviation. 

Make sentences containing the following abbrevia- 
tions used before names of persons: 

Capt. Captain. Hon. Honorable. 

Col. Colonel. Mr. Mister. 

Com. Commodore. Mrs. Mistress. 

Dr. Doctor. Prof. Professor. 

Gen. General. Rev. Reverend. 

Make sentences containing the following abbrevia- 
tions used after names of persons. Thus : 

He wrote to F. S. Ball, A.B V 

Esq. Esquire. A. B. Bachelor of Arts. 

Jr. Junior (younger). Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



65 



M. D. Doctor of Medicine. 
D. D. Doctor of Divinity. 
U. S. A. United States Army. 
M. C. Member of Congress. 



P.M. Postmaster. 
Sr. Senior. 
LL.D. Doctor of Laws. 
M. A. Master of Arts. 



Learn to write correctly the following useful abbre- 
viations : 



Co. County or Company. 


Ave. Avenue. 


Jan. January. 


Supt. Superintendent. 


Feb. February. 


St. Street, or Saint. 


Mar. March. 


ML Mount. 


Apr. April. 


A. M. Forenoon. 


Aug. August. 


P.M. Afternoon. 


Sept. September. 


P. 0. Post-Office. 


Oct. October. 


B. C. Before Christ. 


Nov. November. 


A. D. In the year of our Lord. 


Dec. December. 


N B. Note well. 


Inst, the present month. 


P. S. Postscript (written 


Ult. the past month. 


after.) 



Note the following rules : 

1. The first letter of every proper name should 
be a capital. 

2. A common name joined to a proper name as 
a part of it, should begin with a capital letter ; as 
' Highland Street? ' Hudson River? ' Lake Erie/ 

3. Use the period to denote an abbreviation. 

4. Put a period after each initial letter used for 
the whole name. 



Correct the errors in the following: 

Here are frank and cora they have their dog carlo with 
them frank was ten years old last november, and cora will be 



66 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

seven in august they are going away off on the cars to visit 
their uncle henry who lives in albany n y do you not think 
they will have a good time what fun it would be to go with 
them 

§ 2. Kinds of Verbs 

i. Frank caught a fish. 4. Fred ran against a tree. 

2. She broke her needle. 5. Mary skates on the river. 

3. He killed a butterfly. 

In each of these sentences what word asserts action? 
In sentences 1,2, and 3, what receives the action? Is 
there any preposition before this word? A noun or 
pronoun which thus receives the action of a verb di- 
rectly y is called the object of that verb; and a verb 
that has such an object is said to be transitive. 

In sentences 4 and 5 what word receives the action? 
Does this action pass over from the subject to the object 
directly, or by the aid of a preposition? Can you say 
'Fred ran a tree/ or ' Mary skates the river?' No; 
Fred ran against the tree, and Mary skates on the river. 
Verbs which do not represent the subject as acting 
directly upon an object are said to be intransitive. 

A transitive verb is one that represents the subject as 
acting directly upon an object. 

An intransitive verb is one that is not transitive. 

Supply objects to the following transitive verbs: 

1. The sun gilds . 4. Education improves . 

2. The scholar gained . 5. Fools despise . 

3. The diligent boy deserves 6. Rain refreshes . 

. 7. The gardener prunes . 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



6/ 



8. The boy repeats his . 

9. The king levied . 

10. The physician prescribes 



12. The weary laborer reached 



1 1 . Spring revives 



13. Good men comfort — 

1 4. Good kings love their - 

15. The bridge spans 

16. Ducks frequent . 



Supply intransitive verbs to the following subjects : 



The skylark 
The owl 



The morning - 
The blackbird 
The children - 

The victor 

The drum 

The smoke — 



The lion , 

The lightning 
The torrent — 

The battle 

The wind 

Swallows , 

The cannon — 
The fruit , 



The parrot 

Gold . 

The tide — 



The squirrel 

The bell 

Water . 

The lamb — 
The wolf 



Fill the blanks with transitive verbs : 



1. 

2. 

3- 

4. 

5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

10. 

11. 
12. 

13- 
14. 

15. 
16. 

17- 



The lion his prey. 

The bee honey. 

The woodman the tree. 

The hen her chickens. 

The fisherman his net. 

The husbandman his field. 



Learning 
Virtue — 



the mind. 



• the mind. 

Perseverance difficulties. 

Vice the light. 



The clouds 
Adversity — 
Parliament - 
Commerce - 



- the prospect, 
friends. 

- the laws. 

- nations. 



The flowers perfume 

The sun the clouds. 

Spring nature. 



68 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



1 6. 
19. 
20. 
21. 

22. 

23- 

24. 

2 5- 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 

3°- 



The volcano flame. 

The Hindoo the Ganges. 

The English fleet the Spanish Armada. 

Dionysius Damon to death. 

Cromwell forcibly the House of Commons. 

The king a letter to his secretary. 

The master freedom on his slave. 

The Romans the whole of the known world. 

The New World no lions. 

Hannibal Italy by crossing the Alps. 



The children 

The dog 

The miser — 



daisies. 



the mansion. 
- the robber. 



Make simple sentences containing the following tran- 
sitive verbs : 



purchase, 


excel, 


regard, 


discover, 


establish, 


bequeath, 


conceal, 


paint, 


introduce, 


build, 


honor, 


overthrow, 


construct, 


strew, 


caught, 


rends, 


imbibes, 


overrate, 


trust, 


contain, 


admire, 


watch, 


surprised, 


welcome. 



The object may be a phrase or a clause : 

He tried to speak. 

Bion said, ' Know thyself? 

Bion said that we should know ourselves. 

Astronomers teach that stars are suns. 

Make six sentences containing object-clauses. 
The same verb may be transitive in one use, and 
intransitive in another. Thus : 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 69 

( Snow melts, ( The fire burns. 

\ Heat melts snow. 1 Fire burns wood. 

J The lightning flashed. ( He turns back. 

( His eyes flashed fire. ( The water turns the wheel. 

When a verb may be used alone as predicate, not 
only asserting, but showing what is asserted, it is said 
to be completive. Completive means making [the 
sense] complete. Thus : 

The sun shines. Baby laughs. 

I will remain. Apples are ripening. 

A verb that asserts without showing what is asserted, 
thus requiring one or more words to complete the 
meaning, is said to be incompletive. Thus: 

He shut the door. 

I saw him. 

The day is lovely. 

She seems good. 

He looks ill. 

The part showing what is asserted, is called comple- 
ment. 

The complement may be a noun denoting the same 
thing as the subject: 

Iron is a metal. 

Webster was an orator. 

To persevere is to succeed. 

Her answer was, ' 1 am going home.'' 

A noun thus used is called a predicate noun. 
The complement may be an object: 



70 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Columbus discovered America. 

The sun gives light and heat. 

The hunters found that the bear was gone. 

The complement maybe an adjective, — a predicate 
adjective, telling us something about the subject: 

i. He was sick. 4. He seemed sick. 

2„ She is very happy. 5. She appears very happy. 

3. This is new. 6. This looks new. 

When an intransitive verb, not expressing action, 
merely asserts, and links to its subject one or more 
words used to show what is asserted, it is called a 
copula : 

I am afraid. They were brave and wise. 

It is I. She became or seemed worse. 

The copula and the complement make, in such sen- 
tences, the bare predicate; as, am afraid, is /, etc. 

Read these sentences, mention every verb, and tell 
(1) whether or not it expresses action; (2) whether it 
is transitive or intransitive; (3) whether it is copulative; 
(4) what is its complement, if it has one; (5) what the 
complement tells us about; (6) what part of speech 
the complement is: 



I. 


Birds fly. 


8. 


Reindeer draw sledges. 


2. 


Pansies bear seed. 


9- 


Julia waters the plants. 


3- 


Emma shells peas. 


TO. 


The baby smiles. 


4. 


Minnie runs. 


II. 


Rushes grow tall. 


5- 


Pine-trees bear cones. 


12. 


Woodpeckers eat insects. 


6. 


William laughs. 


x 3- 


The men are making hay. 


7- 


Bees make wax. 


14. 


The boat has oars. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



71 



15. Coal is useful. 

16. Lead is heavy. 

17. Lemons are sour. 

18. Dogs are faithful. 

19. A tiger is striped. 

20. Oranges are juicy. 

21. Clover is fragrant. 

22. Kittens are playful. 

23. Acorn-cups are rough. 

24. The summer is warm. 

25. Oysters are bivalves. 

26. Wood was a botanist. 

27. Asbestos is a mineral. 

28. Longfellow was a poet. 

29. Morse was an inventor. 

30. The book is a geography. 

31. The general is an invalid. 

32. The horse is a quadruped. 
^^. The farmer sent his ser- 
vant. 



34. 
35- 

37- 



38. 



39- 



40. 



41. 



42. 



He put the letter into his 

pocket and smiled. 
The bird flew away. 
Leaves have their time to 

fall. 
The robin picked the 

crumbs after hopping 

in at the window. 
Mary turned and saw the 

ox coming. 
William ran up and turned 

the ox back. 
Follow me when you hear 

me shout. 
The wind bloweth where it 

listeth. 
It is time to fly when the 

wind blows the roof off. 



Write interrogative sentences that illustrate each of 
the following statements : — 

1 action, 
A verb may express I existence, 
( condition. 



A verb may be 



/ transitive, 
I intransitive, 
< complete, 
J incomplete, 
V copulative. 



You have heard that a quality may be assumed to be- 
long to a thing, as i the pretty pin-cushion ; ' or it may 
be asserted, as ' the pin-cushion is pretty/ So the 



>]2 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

action, existence, or state expressed by a word may be 
assumed, and not directly asserted. Thus : 

i. The girls, seeing their danger, cried for help. 

2. Having heard the alarm in sufficient time, they escaped. 

3. Are you fond of skating? 

4. Are you anxious to go ? 

5. Seeing \s believing. 

6. To see the sun is pleasant. 

All these italicized parts express action in a general 
way, but do not assert it. Mark the difference between 
' The girls seeing' and ' The girls see! Such words are 
called verbals. 

A verbal is a word that expresses action, existence, or state, 
but does not assert it. 

Seeing, in the first sentence, adds an idea to, or modi- 
fies, girls ; having heard modifies they : therefore 
both are like adjectives. Like a verb, however, seeing 
denotes action, and takes an object. Having heard 
takes not only an object, but an adverb. Such a word, 
having the nature of both an adjective and a verb, is 
called a participle. 

Skating, in the third sentence, names an action, and 
is the object of a preposition. Seeing, in the fifth sen- 
tence, names an action, and is the subject of a sentence. 
Believing names an action, and is noun-complement. 
Such verbals are called participial nouns. 

A participle with its modifiers is called a participial 
phrase ; as, ' Having heard the alarm in sufficient time/ 

Verbals like to go and to see are called infinitives. 






SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 73 

An infinitive with its modifiers is called an infinitive 
phrase ; as, ' To see the sun.' 

Pick out the verbs and verbals; also the participial 
and infinitive phrases : 

1. To err is human. 

2. William is yet to come. 

3. The birds are beginning to migrate. 

4. Drawing trains the eye. 

5. Can he see without looking? 

6. He is too gentle to hurt a fly. 

7. Being irritated, I made an angry reply. 

8. Did the dog run away howling with pain? 

9. Stripping off his coat, he advanced to meet his foe. 

10. Forsaken by all my friends, I took refuge in flight. 

11. He does not seem to know how sinful swearing is. 

Make sentences, using the infinitives as subjects : 

to eat to play to read 

to run to steal to write 

to dream to whistle to sleep 

Make sentences, using the infinitives as objects : 

to sleep to rest to be chosen 

to fall to drive to be driven 

to give to dance to be whipped 

Make sentences, using the participial phrases, some 
as adjectives, some as nouns : 

rowing the boat having been forgiven 

having been late looking over the lake 

reading the book picking the strawberries 

holding the reins having written the letter 

looking for a pin jumping from the carriage 

closing their books walking early in the morning 



74 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Change each action from its asserted to its assumed 
form, and add new predicates. Thus : ' The bird sings ' 
may be changed to ' The bird singing in yonder tree is 
a robin! 

The horse runs. He is listening. 

The boy studies. He is going to school. 

The wind blows. He is walking up the hill. 

Change compound predicates to simple ones. Thus, 
' The man fired and ran away ' may be changed to 
' The man, firing, ran away/ 

The pupils have finished their tasks, and are allowed to play. 
The lion rouses himself from his lair and begins to prowl. 
Toward twilight the owl quits its perch and takes a circuit 

round the fields. 
A hungry dog had picked up a bone and hurried off with it. 
A crow saw a pitcher at some distance, and flew with joy to it. 

Combine two simple sentences into one by using the 
participle : 

i. Belgium was dissatisfied with its union to Holland. It 
revolted in 1830. 

2. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. He w r ished to abdi- 

cate in favor of his son. 

3. A frog one day saw an ox graze in a meadow. It im- 

agined it could make itself as large as that animal. 

4. The crow opened its beak. It let fall the cheese. 

5. He turned up the bed-clothes. He found his child 

unhurt. 

6. He ascended the scaffold. He addressed the assembly in 

a clear voice. 

7. Edward surrounded the town. He patiently awaited the 

result of his measures. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 75 

8. The emperor became intolerably tyrannical. Some of his 

nobles conspired against his life. 

9. The Russians burned Moscow. The French were com- 

pelled to leave the city. 

10. Leonidas sent away all but three hundred men. He re- 

solved to defend the pass with this devoted band. 

11. Alfred disguised himself as a harper. He obtained access 

to the Danish camp. . 

12. Alfred attacked the Danes at Athelney. He there in- 

flicted on them a signal defeat. 

Distinguish between : 

1. He rows /or exercise. 

2. He rows that he may exercise. 

3. He rows to exercise. 

Change complex sentences into simple ones : 

1. A negro, if he works for himself and not for his master, 

will do double the work. 

2. That we may fully understand the subject, let us consider 

the following statements. 

3. Seals and other animals which have both land and water 

habits are sometimes called amphibious animals. 

4. A good man will do his utmost that he may do good to his 

fellow-men and draw down blessings on himself. 

5. When Caesar had conquered Gaul he sailed for Britain. 

Select the verbs and the verbals. Tell whether the 
verbs are words or phrases, transitive or intransitive, 
complete or incomplete, or copulative. Tell whether 
the verbals are adjective, nouns or adverbs, and point 
out their modifiers: 

Two men set out on a journey; one was blind, the other 
was lame. If they had known that they were both going the 



76 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

same way, each might have helped the other ; but they did not 
know this, so each walked on by himself. Very soon the 
blind man overtook the lame man, and passed him, because he 
could walk much more quickly. But presently he came to a 
stream flowing across the road, and bridged by nothing but a 
narrow plank. Here, attempting to cross, he fell in. On find- 
ing his clothes drenched with water, he sat down to dry them. 
Meantime the lame man passed him, hobbling along with great 
difficulty, and obliged to stop to rest almost every minute. In 
this foolish way they would have pursued their journey, but, 
passing together through the next village, they met a little boy, 
who looked up at them and said, •' Why do they travel in this 
foolish way? Surely they would be more comfortable if the 
lame man rode on the blind man ; then the lame man might 
guide, and the blind might carry/ On hearing this, the blind 
man said at once, 6 This is a good thought. What say you ? 
I should like to try the experiment, if you did not object ' ' By 
all means/ answered the other ; ' I shall be most happy to try it.' 
So up he jumped ; and in this way they pursued their journey, 
and finished it in half (of) the time that it would else have 
taken. 

Make a story from the following outline, and tell all 
you can about the verbs and verbals : 

A man driving his horse and cart horse drawing a heavy 

load. did not turn as the man wished man beat him 

horse reared and plunged would not go the right 

way the man grew angry and beat him more another 

man stepped forward patted the horse on the neck 

and spoke to him kindly the horse turned looked 

as if he would thank the man bent his broad chest to the 

load walked on briskly a kind word is strong, and 

costs little. 

Give the oral analysis of each sentence, then diagram 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



77 



it; observe carefully the signs for the object-comple- 
ment and the participle : 

i. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. 



■asi>rnj 



O^u^d^ty ^Jiajtns 



^£^^-2%^ I tk& 



2. I neither blamed nor praised him. 




3. Harry and Frank study and recite arithmetic and grammar. 




4. Washington, the father of his country, was a great and 
noble man. 



-O 



/uszzJ-/?r2sasn/ 



%£^r 



V 



/*%/ 



'rr 



yC^T^C^tT^/ 



78 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

5. He meant to kill the man. 



/?n^i>n/ 



y^TL^O^lJ^ 



6. His wish was to remain until the next day. 



/wtdA/ 


/^^ec/-^^^^^^^^^ 


JS^J 


yU^iZc^x^a^z/ 




Inez yT^e^r 



7. The glass, broken in pieces, lay upon the floor. 



s^ZZ^ZJJ/ 




sc*^nm/ x 



stW. 




8. I saw a gentleman sitting on the porch. 



o 



& 



slZS 



^^i 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



79 



9. The Christmas-tree, loaded with gifts, presented a beautiful 
appearance. 



s/yi&e/ 



cU 



10. Whether we shall go has not been decided. 



1^ S14W 



"<^ 



W TT 



££1 



/njj~ 



1 1 . We believe that the earth is round. 




stJ-yUn4s / n<tfr' 



1. I like to sew. 

2. The sun, being low, was pale. 

3. I expect to go to-morrow. 

4. Old Joe tells funny stories. 

5. She promised to call early. 

6. The cow eats her grass quietly. 

7. Slight differences of opinion sometimes lead to strife. 

8. The merchant opened his new shop. 



80 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

9. Parents love their children. 

10. Mary returned the cloth because she found it too narrow. 

11. The boy's mother tended him with the greatest care. 

12. His illness lasted long. 

13. After many months he recovered somewhat; but, alas! 

the malady returned, and hurried him to the grave. 

14. The soldiers, watching their chief, hastened onward. 

15. We saw the men holding their horses. 

16. The children playing in the street heard the bell ringing 

at the house. 

1 7. The tree planted by my father bears fruit for me. 

18. The moon, hid behind the clouds, gave only a dim light. 

19. Knowledge is power put into practice. 

20. I saw a boy ploughing. 

2 1 . We saw a squirrel seated on the topmost branch of a tall 

tree. 

22. That he was a foreigner was well known. 

23. I am not sure that he did it. 

24. He pushed me, and I fell. 

25. Did you say that Washington never told a lie? 



§ 3. Kinds of Pronouns. 

A person speaking of himself does not use his name, 
but one of the words standing for his name, — I, me. 

/ asked Ida to go with me. 

When a speaker joins himself with others, he uses 

we, us : 

We asked Ida to go with us. 

In speaking to another person or to others, we com- 
monly say you : 

Ida, will you go with us ? 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 8 1 

In speaking of a male person, we avoid a too-frequent 
repetition of the person's name by the use of he, him: 

I asked him to go, and he consented. 

In speaking of a female person, we may use she, her : 

I asked her to go, and she consented. 

In speaking of a thing neither male nor female, we may 
use it : 

John took the apple and ate it. 

In speaking of more than one person or thing, we may 
use they, them : 

They saw John ■ John saw them. 

These little words are called personal pronouns, be- 
cause they have different forms to denote the person 
speaking, the person spoken to, and the person or thing 
spoken of. 

A pronoun that denotes the person speaking, is in 
the first person, — /, me, we, us. 

A pronoun that denotes the person spoken to, is 
in the second person, — you (and sometimes thou, 
thee, ye). 

A pronoun that denotes the person or thing spoken 
of, is in the third person, — he, she, it, they, them. 

The words me, you (or thee), him, her, us, it, and 
them, take the place of nouns used as objects. 

The words I, we, you, thou, ye, he, she, they, 
and it, take the place of nouns used as subjects or 
predicate complements. 



82 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



Each pronoun has a corresponding form that denotes 
ownership and is used as an adjective, — my, thy, his, 
her, its, our, your, their. As predicate adjectives, my 
and thy change to mine and thine ; her, our, your, and 
their change to hers, ours, yours, and theirs : 



This is 



thy 
her 
our 

your or 
their 



> book. 



This book is < 



rmine 

thine 

hers 

ours 

yours or 
^ theirs. 



Select the pronouns; tell whether they are of the 
first, second, or third person, and why; whether they 
denote one or more than one ; whether they are used 
as objects, subjects, or predicate complements ; and 
which are adjectives: 

i. Will you go with us? 

2. They have gone and left us. 

3. They were glad to see you. 

4. Do you know where their house is ? 

5. Did you see the horse shake its head? 

6. I left her book on your desk. 

7. We should improve our time. 

8. I will shoot the dog if it bites me. 
o. Tell us what we shall see. 






SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 83 

10. John says he did not hear you. 

1 1. We brought it with us. 

12. He found my book. 

13. Will you let me go? 

14. She deserves great praise for her work. 

15. I say ye mistake me much, if such is your opinion. 

16. Thou knowest him not. 

17. Leave the books, and I will send them along with ours. 

18. Your work is finished ; hers is not. 

19. He lost himself in the wood. 

20. If the book were mine, I should read it often. 

21. I hope, madam, you find yourself better this morning. 

22. I am much better, I thank you, sir. 

23. The cause of truth itself requires it. 

24. She told me herself. 

25. Carrie and her cousin came to visit me ; they brought 

all their toys with them. 

26. We are going to your house ; our dog is with us. 

27. Ask thy Father in heaven to assist thee. 

28. The bird hides its nest in the grass, that naughty boys 

may not find it. 

29. James says he has a little pony which his uncle gave him. 

30. Where are you going, boys ? May we go with you ? 

31. Thou art my beloved Son; this day have I begotten 

thee. 

Fill the blanks with suitable pronouns: 

1. Where are the children? are gone to take a walk. 

2. My brother is from home, and will not be back for 

a week. 

3. am studying diligently. 

4. Where is the dog? There is, has hurt 

foot. 

5. Did see sister? No; was away when 

called. 



84 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

6. Where is aunt? Is coming to-night? 

7. am sorry that cannot come ; but is so 

ill that cannot leave bed. 

8. Grace called, and Lucy went home with . 

9. The hunters took their guns with . 

10. These things are so common with that we hardly 

notice . 



11. His friends could not please . 

12. She will be glad to have you visit . 

13. She showed the path that led to the village. 

The noun for which a pronoun stands is called 
its antecedent. This word is from ante, before, and 
cedere, to go. The antecedent usually goes before the 
pronoun. 

Pick out each pronoun, name its antecedent, and show 
in what respects the two agree : 

1. Indians are treacherous in their character. 

2. James struck his brother with his fist. 

3. There goes Mary with her satchel of books. 

4. Harry has a little carriage, and he often rides in it. 

5. The old hen calls her young ones when she finds a 

worm for them. 

6. A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not. 

7. The snow spreads its white sheet over the whole country. 

8. The book is so old that it has lost its cover. 

9. Amy, will you get your doll? 

10. A king cannot take his crown with him. 

11. Men must reap the things they sow. 

12. Augustus Caesar boasted that he found Rome built of 

brick, and left it marble. 

There are some longer pronouns, made from the 
simple pronoun by adding the noun self to denote 






SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 85 

one person or thing, and the noun selves to denote 
more than one. These are called compound personal 
pronouns. They are — 



myself, 


herself, 


ourselves, 


thyself, 


itself, 


yourselves, 


himself, 


yourself, 


themselves. 



Write sentences containing compound personal pro- 
nouns, tell how each pronoun is formed, and of what 
person it is. 

Now let us make two statements, such as the follow- 
ing: 

He sent for the girl. She immediately came. 

These can be united thus : 

He sent for the girl, and she immediately came. 

Or we can say : 

He sent for the girl, who immediately came. 

In this sentence the word who stands for girl, and is 
therefore a pronoun. But it also joins the two state- 
ments, and is therefore a conjunction. 
We may say : 

This is the boy. You called him. 

But these simple statements may be made into one 
sentence by the use of that or whom : 

This is the boy that or whom you called. 

Suppose our sentences to be : 

This is the boy. His father was killed. 



86 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

We may unite these by whose : 

This is the boy whose father was killed. 
Again : 

We are like flowers. They bloom and die. 

These may be united by which : 

We are like flowers, which bloom and die. 

The words who, whose, whom, that, and which (and 
sometimes as, in connection with such, or same), when 
used in this way, are called relative pronouns. They 
i relate/ or join, clauses to antecedents. 

The clauses introduced by relative pronouns, since they re- 
late to or modify nouns, are always adjective clauses. 

Who and whom are applied to persons. 

Which is applied to inferior animals or things without 
life. 

Whose and that are applied to both persons and 
things. 

Sometimes the antecedent is not expressed, or rather 
it is included in the relative : 

He found what he wished. 
Whoever does it will be punished. 

These sentences are equal to : 

He found the thing which he wished. 
Any person who does it will be punished. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 87 

The words what, whoever, whatever, whichever, when 
thus used, are called compound relatives. 

Name each relative pronoun and its antecedent; tell 
what clause it joins to its antecedent, what part of 
speech the clause is, and why; whether the relative 
stands for one thing or more than one; whether it 
stands for the speaker, the person spoken to, or the 
person or thing spoken of; whether it is object, subject, 
or complement after a copulative verb : 

1. The person who does no good does harm. 

2. He studies what is useful. 

3. We honor those persons who are honorable. 

4. The bird which sang so sweetly has flown. 

5. The boy who fell into the. river was saved by a boat that 

was passing. 

6. That is the man whose house was burned. 

7. Have you sold the goods which you bought? 

8. I took what he gave me. 

9. The man whom we saw to-day is the same that met us 

yesterday. 

10. It was the darkest night that I ever saw. 

11. God, who created all things, whose we are, and whom 

we serve, is eternal. 

Put in suitable pronouns : 

1 . It was not who called. 

2. I think it is . 

3. All were saved but . 

4. Who rang the bell ? rang the bell. 

5. It was who broke the window. 

6. It is . 

7. Are you taller than ? 

8. John and will go. 



83 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

9. John found the book had lost. 

10. Have read lesson? 

11. When does intend to come? 

12. This boy says didn't do it. 

13. James allowed to read the letter sent — ! — . 

14. Anne brought little brother to school yesterday, but 

refused to come with to-day. 

15. The boy fell off the wall told mother that 

felt no pain. 

16. When have finished this letter must send 

to " the post-office. 

17. The servant is not greater than lord. 

18. Father art in heaven. 

19. Uneasy lies the head wears a crown. 

20. Will show have in hand? 



Use relative pronouns to combine simple sentences 
into complex ones : 

1. The seed has become a tree. It was planted by Edward. 

2. Tea was unknown in this country a few centuries ago. 

We could now scarcely dispense with it. 

3. Cotton is a soft, woolly substance. It grows round the 

seeds of a plant. 

4. The city of Rome is situated on the River Tiber. The 

city is about sixteen miles distant from the sea. 

5. The snow fell during the night. It melted before morning. 

6. The eldest son of Paul was Alexander. Paul was suc- 

ceeded by Alexander. 

7. The sea-dikes in Holland are generally about thirty feet in 

height. They are erected all along the coast. 

8. Nero's whole reign was a scene of bloodshed. He set 

Rome on fire for mere amusement. 

9. Charles was early inured to hardships. He could endure 

cold and hunger without inconvenience. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



8 9 



10. The oak reproached a reed. The reed grew by the side 

of a stream. 

11. We saw a ship in the harbor. It sailed for London. 

Analyze and diagram the following sentences : 

1 . The boy who brought it is waiting below. 

This is a complex declarative sentence, because it 
consists of a principal assertion and a clause. The 
principal assertion is The boy is waiting below ; who 
brought it is the clause. The bare subject of the whole 
sentence is boy ; the bare predicate is is waiting. The 
modifiers of the subject are the, and the relative clause 
who brought it. The points out, and who brought it 
tells what boy. The boy who brought it is the complete 
subject. The predicate is modified by below, an ad- 
verb telling where. Is waiting below is the complete 
predicate. 



'PZ/ ^ w ^-/74SZZs£Z^Zrf 



(% 






2. The gentleman whom you met is my father. 






sty&ZstS 



IT 



/rt^r 






9° 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



3. He who brings the treasure that I prize most, will receive 
the reward of which he is worthy. 




..^CJ /?sC^L 



yCtCiZd^MX^ 



o — /" > 



d( Q -^^ 1 



4. He who runs may read. 

5. The rings which surround Saturn can be seen with a 
telescope. 

6. The boy whom the master called has come. 

7. The books belong to the girl whose name is marked upon 
them. 

8. This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that 
Jack built. 

9. The boys and girls said to the master, i We are sorry that 
we did not tell the truth.' 

10. A religion whose origin is divine, cannot teach false 
doctrines. 

11. Was Solomon the wisest man that ever lived? 

12. It is the taljest tree that I ever saw. 

13. The person for whom you are doing so much, does not 
appreciate your kindness. 

When I say, Who comes here ? for what does who 
stand? It is therefore what part of speech ? What 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 9 1 

kind of a sentence is Who comes here ? Then what 
kind of a pronoun is who ? 

Who, whose, whom, which, and what, when used in asking 
questions, are called interrogative pronouns. 

Who goes there ? With whom did you go ? 

I know who goes there. Which of you can do this? 

Whose is this ? What do you wish ? 
Whom do you call ? 

Who , whose, and whom refer to persons only. 
What refers to animals or things. 
Which refers to persons, animals, or things. 
Whose, which, and what are also used as interrogative 
adjectives : 

Whose book is that ? 
Which flower will you have ? 
What man could foresee this ? 

Fill the blanks with interrogative pronouns : 

1. called me? 9. is your teacher? 

2 

3 

4 

5 
6 



did you send for? 10. In class are you? 

is it ? 1 1 . By are you taught ? 

shall we fear? 12. house is that? 

Of shall we be afraid? 13. By is it occupied? 

do you prefer? 14. came with you? 

will go with me ? 15. With did you 



To are you speak- come? 

ing? 16. For did you ask? 

Make complex interrogative sentences, using who, 
whom, which, and what. Thus : 

Which is the cat that killed the rat ? 

Who that knew him could believe this story ? 



92 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Make three simple and three complex interrogative 
sentences, using whose, which, and what as adjectives. 

Observe carefully the object-complements in each of 
the following sentences : 

If you take this, I will take that 
If you carry these, I will carry those. 

Of what part of speech is each italicized word? 
Why? Which denote something near? Which denote 
something farther away? Which denote but one thing, 
and which more than one? 

The words this, these, that, and those, when used 
as above, are called demonstrative pronouns. They 
point out, or direct attention to, the thing spoken of. 

These words cease to be pronouns as soon as they 
become modifiers. Thus : 

That man will not fight. The wing of this bird is hurt. 

These people are foreigners. Did you see those Italians? 

That, you remember, is often a mere conjunction : 

He said that he would go. 

The opinion that it was too late, prevailed. 

Point out the demonstrative pronouns : 

i. This is the house. 

2. How was this dog hurt? 

3. These apples are sour. 

4. Those that think most, live most. 

5. Have you read these books ? 

6. Did you see those wild geese ? 

Tell what each that is in the following sentences: 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 93 

1. Who is that gentleman that spoke to you? 
2 When you find the passage that I want, show it to that 
lady. 

3. Is that your pen that you have dropped? 

4. That bears a strong resemblance to the picture of Holy- 

rood Palace that you showed me. 

5. Where is the girl that finished that drawing that hangs 

on that wall? 

6. Give me that book — that one that you have in your 

hand. 

7. The girl that studies will learn. 

8. I did not know that he had come. 

9. Bless them that persecute you. 

10. I heard that you had been sick. 

1 1 . The man that owns that house says that he will sell it. 

12. She that is virtuous will be loved. 

13. It was a violent wind that blew down that tree. 

14. I have sold the horse that you sent me. 

Put who or which instead of the relative that in the 
preceding: 

Fill the blanks with suitable pronouns : 

1. The carriage we came in has returned. 

2. The man you saw was my friend. 

3. The book I borrowed has been returned. 

4. I will gladly lend you the book you sent for. 

5. The lady spoke to me is my sister. 

6. The scholar studied most got on best. 

7. James has lost the knife his father gave him. 

8. The cow the farmer bought yesterday is in the field. 

9. It was Dr. William Harvey first proved the circula- 

tion of the blood. 

10. Martin Luther, by labors the Reformation was 

chiefly brought about, died in the year 1546. 



94 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

ii. Jerusalem was the city to Crusaders bent their 

course. 

12. They stood on a hill overlooked a beautiful plain. 

13. The men for they waited soon came in sight. 

14. We met the blind boy and the dog you told us of. 

15. We gave the boy three cents was all we had. 

When the words — 



each, 


some, 


any, 


none, 


aught, 


either, 


few, 


many, 


both, 


such, 


neither, 


all, 


one, 


other, 


naught, 



stand for names, they are called indefinite pronouns, 
because they do not point out or particularize. 

Compare the italicized words, and tell which are pro- 
nouns, and which are adjectives, giving the reasons: 

1 . All men are mortal. 

2. All must perish. 

3. Much remains to be done. 

4. He wastes much. 

5. He is heard for his ''much speaking.' 

6. The little ones are asleep. 

7. He could do but little. 

8. Many will worship him. 

9. Many were killed. 

10. Each hour should be improved. 

11. Many will be called, but few will be chosen. 

1 2. Many men of many minds. 

13. Either will suit. 

14. Both stories are false. 

15. Neither officer was to blame. 

16. There is little hope for such. 

17. Reward each. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



95 



1 8. Did you see both ? 

1 9. Those letters should be mailed. 

20. Such cases do not often occur. 

21. One man's meat is another man's poison. 

22. These are too slow, those are too fast. 

23. What shall I bring you? 

24. She had no fortune, but that of my father was ample. 

25. One shall be chosen, and another left. 

Put in suitable pronouns : 

1. Every person should remember that may need help 

some day. 

2. Let every pupil be ready to take slate with . 

3. A wise teacher requires boys and girls to obey . 

4. The bird and mate are in the tree. 

5. A writer wishes to know what will please those for whom 

writes. 

6. This is the boy broke the window. 

7. We bathed in the lake waters are as clear as crystal. 

8. The kind words you have spoken will never be for- 

gotten. 

9. They seek me early shall find me. 

1 o. Happy is the man walketh not in the counsel of the 

ungodly. 
11. She is a person everybody respects. 

Put in compound personal pronouns : 

1. The travellers refreshed at a cool spring. 

2. She must work, and take care of . 

3. You ought to be ashamed of . 

4. She supported her mother and by her work. 

5. I behaved as well as you behaved . 

6. The man has injured by the course he has pursued. 

7. If a house be divided against that house cannot 

stand. 



96 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

8. The teacher could not explain the example. 

9. The pupils behave remarkably well. 

10. If we exert we shall surely win. 

Write sentences illustrating the use of who, which, 
what, and that as two different parts of speech. 

Write four sentences about each of the following 
things, using object-complements in two of them, and 
adjective-complements in the other two : 

ink rain monkey moon dog 

Make sentences containing infinitive phrases used as 
adverbs, adjectives, and nouns. 

Make five sentences containing participial phrases, 
of which two shall be in the subject, and three in the. 
predicate. 

Diagram the following sentences : 

1. The planet Jupiter has four moons. 

2. Living toads are sometimes found in the middle of huge 

rocks. 

3. Pride in dress or in beauty, betrays a weak mind. 

4. The city of London is situated on the River Thames. 

5. The vessels carrying the blood from the heart are called 

arteries. 

6. The book prized above all other books is the Bible. 

7. Rivers rising west of the Rocky Mountains empty into 

the Pacific Ocean. 

8. The guns fired at Lexington were heard around the 

world. 

9. The thick mists which prevail in the neighborhood of 

Newfoundland are caused by the warm waters of 
the Gulf Stream. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 97 

ro. The power which brings a pin to the ground holds the 
earth in its orbit. 

11. Death is the black camel which kneels at every man's 

gate. 

12. Our best friends are they who tell us of our faults and 

help us to mend them. 

Expand sentences 5, 6, 7, and 8, into complex sen- 
tences. 

Contract sentences 9, 10, n, and 12, into simple sen- 
tences. 

§ 4. Kinds of Adjectives. 

Good health is long life. 

Black clouds turn to rain. 

The large tree bears sweet apples. 

White, fleecy clouds are in the blue sky. 

What kind of health is spoken of? What kind of life? 
What kind of a tree? What kind of a sky? What 
clouds turn to rain? What kind of apples does the 
tree bear? What kind of clouds are in the blue sky? 

Thus we see that some adjectives describe things by 
showing of what kind or quality they are. We may 
call them descriptive or qualifying adjectives. 

One man sat in the fourth pew. 

No pupil was idle. 

Every pupil studied. 

Some ships were destroyed. 

Both boys were absent. 

Much good may be done quietly. 

In these sentences the adjectives do not tell the 



98 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

kind, as the others did, but the number or quantity. 
Such adjectives are called numerals. 

This man is innocent. 
That man is guilty. 
Yonder wall is decaying. 

Do we mean that any man is innocent? Or that any 
man is guilty? Or that every wall is decaying? 

A few adjectives, like this, that) and yonder) are used, 
not to describe, nor to tell how many, but to particu- 
larize or to point out. Such are called demonstrative 
adjectives : 

Which study do you like best? 

What word did he misspell? 

Whose pen is that? 

Do you like all your studies best? Did he misspell 
all his words? Do we mean any pen? Do we here 
distinguish one thing from another by stating or by 
asking? Do which) what) and whose lean or depend 
upon names? 

Which) what, and whose) used adjectively, are called 
interrogative adjectives. 

Accordingly, we have the following definitions : 

i. A descriptive adjective is one that denotes 
quality or sort. 

2. A numeral adjective is one that expresses 
number or quantity. 

3. A demonstrative adjective is one that points 
out particular things ; as the, this, these y that, those. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 99 

4. An interrogative adjective is one used in ask- 
ing questions, — which, what, whose. 

Mention every adjective, tell what it modifies, and to 
which of the four sub-classes it belongs : 

1. I see a black horse and a white horse in the picture. 

2. That old man is poor and lame and blind. 

3. I live in a red house with green blinds. 

4. The little boat cannot sail so fast as the great ship with its 

tall masts and broad sails. 

5. I know a sweet young girl with mild blue eyes. 

6. A smoking chimney and a scolding wife try the patience 

of a man. 

7. A hare and a tortoise ran a race. 

8. The tortoise gained the race. 

9. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 

The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea. 

10. In which house do you live? 

11. The warm sun ripens the growing grain. 

12. All the boys are in the new class. 

13. Seven days make a week. 

14. All cats are gray in the dark. 

15. The bell did not ring on that day. 

Write a sentence in which you use a series of de- 
scriptive adjectives ; also one in which you use a series 
of numeral adjectives. 

Write sentences, using these words as adjectives ; tell 
what kind of adjective each is: 



long 
two 


sincere 
fifth 


useful 
tenfold 


tough 
all 


heavy 
some 


waving 
a 


flying 
any 


this 
many 


the 
whose 


singing 
third 



IOO FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Write sentences containing words that mean the 
opposite of — 

healthy frail healthful sincere 

truthful shallow slender narrow 

Form nouns from the adjectives, sometimes changing 
the spelling: 

(i) By adding the syllable ness : 

white black loud coarse rough 

sweet hard heavy swift bright 

(2) By adding th : 

long wide young 

deep warm true 

Form adjectives from the nouns by adding less, ful y 
or ish ; then form nouns from these adjectives by add- 
ing ness : 



care 


father 


cheer 


boy 


girl 


tear 


pity 


health 


rogue 


fever 


sleep 


play 


fear 


self 


fop 


leaf 


hurt 


beauty 







Long ago people said ane tree or ane act when they 
meant one tree or one act. Then the e was dropped, 
and they said an tree or an act. 

Still later, for the sake of ease in speaking, n was 
dropped except before words beginning with the sound 
of # , e, i, o> and u ; as : 

an ape an elephant an image an orange an urn 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. IOI 

Some words beginning with o, e, or u are sounded as 
if they began with w or y. Before such we use a, not 
an ; as * many a one,' ' a useful boy,' i a ewe and her 
lamb.' 

The little words a or an, and the, are called articles. 
The is called the definite article, because it usually 
means a particular thing of the kind named. A or an 
is called the indefinite article, because it means any one 
thing of the kind named. ' Give me a pen ' means that 
a7iy pen will do. 

This is used to point out one thing near at hand ; 
that, to point out one thing farther off. 

These and those point out more than one : the first 
denoting objects near at hand; the second, objects 
farther off. 

Make sentences, using either a or an before: 



acre 


office 


peach 


match 


melon 


unit 


apple 


ankle 


hour 


idleness 


heir 


echo 


plum 


upper room 


hair 


young man 


aisle 


carpet 


wagon 


hundred men 



Make sentences, using a or an, this, that, these, or 
those before : 



whip 


goose 


mice 


ox 


awl 


geese 


engine 


oxen 


apples 


mouse 


nights 


honey-bee 



A noun often does the work of a simple adjective : 

(i) She wore a diamond necklace. 
(2) Has the London mail arrived? 



102 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

(3) Frank's dog is in Mr. Smith's yard. 

(4) Kelley, the garde?ier, is going home. 

(5) The novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is very popular. 

(6) Parse the phrase, to go home. 

(7) Her answer, ' Seven are we] was repeated. 

(8) The fact that he struck her. is evident. 

All the italicized parts here, since they modify nouns, 
are, in effect, or use y adjectives. In (3) the modifying 
noun denotes possession. In (4), (5), (6), (7), and 
(8), the modifier describes or identifies the noun. Note 
the difference between : 

Mr. Smith has returned. 

Mr. Smith, the merchant, has returned. 

A noun or pronoun used to identify another noun or pro- 
noun is said to be in apposition with it. 

A pronoun may do the work of an adjective : 

(1) They killed a she-heax. (6) This lunch is mine. 

(2) This is my lunch. (7) The basket is hers. 

(3) He took her basket. (8) The hat is j^r.*-. 

(4) Hang up your hat. (9) The slates are theirs. 

(5) They broke their slates. 

In all these sentences but the first, the modifying per- 
sonal pronoun denotes possession. 

In the predicate position, the pronoun changes its 
form slightly, as you see in (6), (7), (8), and (9). 

A participle or participial phrase may do the work of 
an adjective : 

The man driving told him to get off. 

The city standing on a hill may be seen a great distance. 

Caesar, having crossed the river, gave battle. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. IO3 

An infinitive may do the work of an adjective : 

Books to read were given him. 

Time to come is called future. 

His attempt to close the doors was not successful. 

A prepositional phrase may do the work of an ad- 
jective: 

The flowers of spring are here. 

The boys on our street are noisy. 

The man in the moon turns a grindstone. 

A relative clause does the work of an adjective : 

The man who is in the moon turns a grindstone. 

The house which he built was sold. 

These are subjects that are hard to understand. 

Pick out all the simple adjectives and all the parts 
that do the work of adjectives: 

1. He saw a man in armor. 

2. The house built by Jack was destroyed. 

3. He made a dog kennel. 

4. Give me your hand. 

5. The army, being defeated, withdrew. 

6. The street of By and By leads to the house of Never. 

7. A horse to ride, and a drum to beat, satisfy him. 

8. The fear of evil is the beginning of wisdom. 

9. He that leans on his own strength leans on a broken reed. 

10. These books are my father's. 

11. The moss-covered bucket which hangs in the well. 

12. The prince, young and handsome, won the hearts of his 

subjects. 

13. She looks pretty. 

14. What man would do such a thing? 



104 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

15. Up yonder hill the village murmur rose. 

16. The scene was an unfailing source of pleasure. 

17. Henry, the coachman, has gone to the barn. 

18. You, Landis, were not attentive. 

19. He was Arnold the traitor. 

20. He laughs best who laughs last. 

2 1 . I know a bank where the arbutus grows. 

Clauses may often be changed to phrases, and both 
may be changed to words, without change of meaning. 
Thus: 

1. He is a man of wealth = He is a wealthy man. 

2. These are reports that can be relied upon = These are 

trustworthy reports. 

3. Are these the lessons which are to be reviewed '? = Are these 

the lessons to be reviewed ? 

4. This is the temple that Solomon built = This is the temple 

built by Solomon, 

On the other hand, an adjective may be expanded 
into a phrase or a clause having the same meaning : 

He is an eminent man = He is a man of eminence. 
Ambitious boys = Boys who are ambitious. 

Change the adjective phrases and clauses to adjective 
words : 

1. The boy who studies will improve. 

2. The girl that is polite has friends. 

3. The man who is learned is respected. 

4. The horse which moves gracefully is admired. 

5. The merchant who acts honorably obtains credit. 

6. Let me show you some goods that are from Japan. 

7. Citizens who are patriots will not neglect to vote. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 105 

8. I wish to introduce you to some travellers from America. 

9. I plucked a flower which grew in the garden. 

Expand adjective words into phrases and clauses : 

a beautiful girl a garden flower 

an untruthful man bad people 

the studious boy a box of wood 

Write five sentences containing adjective phrases and 
five containing adjective clauses. 

An adjective that comes from a proper noun should begin 
with a capital letter. 

He was an Austrian general. 
He saluted the English flag. 

Write sentences containing proper adjectives made 
from the following nouns : 

France Spain Britain 

Greece China Mexico 

Rome Scotland America 

Appositives are separated from the rest of the sentence by 
commas. 

Put commas where they are needed : 

Jones the merchant has failed. 

We crossed the Amazon the largest river in the world. 

His favorite sport to hunt the deer was over. 

The motion that the petition be granted prevailed. 

The maxim Haste makes waste is little heeded. 

To travel comfortably a necessary thing in my case was 

impossible. 
To play the flute his chief delight was now impossible. 
He became a bankrupt a result which had long been expected. 
This notion that she is a beauty has spoiled her. 



106 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

The pupil should not forget that the same word, 
phrase, or clause may be differently used, and so may 
become a different part of speech. Thus: 

That the earth is round is easily proved Noun 

The fact that the earth is round is easily proved . Adjective 

He was too weak to rise Adverb 

His attempt to rise failed Adjective 

To rise was impossible Noun 

We came on the fast train Adjective 

Do not walk so fast Adverb 

He went /or pleasure Preposition 

He cannot go, for he disobeyed Conjunction 

Tell to what part of speech the words in italics 
belong: 

i. Your watch is too slow. 
2 Sailors watch the sky. 

3. The rose is fragrant. v 

4. Edith rose from the chair. 

5. The house is built on a rock. 

6. The waves rock the vessel. 

7. I saw a. fair lady at the fair last night. 

8. He has more money, but he is not more happy, than the 

peasant. 

9. The general rode before the lines before the battle com- 

menced. 
10. Christ was able to still the tempest, but the disciples were 

still afraid, even upon the still waters. 
ti. The chemist poured the liquid into a copper still. 

12. The gay lady thinks little of the misery which dwells in 

that little hut. 

13. Though he has not much education, he has seen much of 

the world, and has been much flattered. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 107 

14. He kept the money ////night, and did not leave till he 

had put it all safe in the till. 

15. If we do not succeed, we can but fail. 

16. They invited us all, but no one went but me. 

1 7. What ! do you mean what you say ? 

18. At what price did you sell your horse? 

19. What does he care for money? 

20. Hope guides the young. 

21. A young child needs constant care. 

22. He spoke of his future plans. 

23. The future is unknown. 

24. Two boys joined our party. 

25. We walked by /zew and threes. 

26. 77zz> is an almanac. 

27. T/to almanac contains a list of the planets. 

28. ^4// things come alike to all. 

29. There is some good in mry man. 

30. This day is celebrated by some. 

31.' Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little 
long.' 

32. We had little joy. 

33. Informer times, men travelled in coaches. 

34. You must choose the former or the latter. 

35. Of two evils choose the less. 

36. This sum is less. 



§ 5. Kinds of Adverbs. 

He works outside. This book is entirely new. 

Mary died yesterday. This lesson is very short. 

Wait patie?itly. Perhaps he knows no better. 

Where does he work? When did Mary die? In what 
manner shall you wait? iifoze/ new is the book? How 



io8 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



short is the lesson? Are you sure that he knows no 
better, or do you assert it doubtfully ? 

Adverbs that tell where y are adverbs of place. Thus : 



He walked < 



there 
up 

below or 
forth 
etc. 



Adverbs that tell when, are adverbs of time. Thus: 



He comes < 



now 
soon 
often 
never 
next 
first 
twice 

presently or 
frequently 
etc. 



Adverbs that tell how, are adverbs of manner. 
Thus: 

thus 
ill 

well 
He speaks \ otherwise 
truly or 
quietly 
etc. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 



IO9 



Adverbs that tell how much, are adverbs of degree. 

Thus: 

almost 
scarcely 
greatly 
very 
more 
little 
least or 
completely A 



I am 



glad. 



Adverbs of manner that represent the assertion as 
positive or doubtful, are modal adverbs. Thus : 



It is 



accordingly 
possibly 
probably 
certainly 
perhaps or 
. not 



V true. 



Carefully compare the following : 



He lives there. 
The ship sails now. 
He walks carefully. 
She is excessively proud. 



He lives in that place* 
The ship sails at this time. 
He walks with care. 
She is proud to excess. 



Where does he live ? When does the ship sail ? How 
does he walk? How proud is she? 

Hence we see that a phrase may do the work of an 
adverb : 

1. We dine at one o'clock. 

2. It was thrown into the river. 

3. They came in great haste. 



IIO FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

4. He was gone all day. 

5. I come ^ bury Ccesar. 

6. Bread too hard to eat was given them. 

Likewise a clause may do the work of an adverb : 

1. Chestnuts fall when the frost comes. 

2. Come a s the winds come. 

3. I will go, since you ask it. 

4. He studies that he may succeed. 

5. I will go if I am needed. 

The phrase, to bury Ccesar, and the clauses in 3 and 
4, tell why. Adverbs that tell why, are adverbs of 
cause. Clauses like that in 5 are called adverbs of 
condition. We might consider them a variety of modal 
adverbs. 

Now read these sentences : 

This is the house where he was born. 
This is the house in which he was born. 

In the first sentence what connects the clause with 
the principal assertion? In the second sentence what 
connects the clause with the principal assertion? Which 
connects the clause with what word ? In which modi- 
fies was bom like what part of speech? Are where and 
in which equivalents ? Does where therefore perform 
the double duty of modifying and connecting? 

Adverbs that connect as well as modify are called 
conjunctive adverbs. Thus: 
when 

where or 
as 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. Ill 

how \ 

why f T 



He asked < / > I came, 

whence or 



whe?i 

A conjunctive adverb modifies the verb of the clause 
which it connects. The clause itself modifies the prin- 
cipal verb. 

How, when, where, and why are used interrogatively; 
as: 

How 



V die 



When 

V did you go? 
Where or ( 

Why ) 

Pick out the adverbial words, phrases, clauses, and 
conjunctive adverbs; tell what each modifies and 
denotes : 

i. The sun sinks slowly. 

2. Too many eyes are gazing. 

3. William went there yesterday. 

4. Always speak the truth. 

5. How dark the clouds are ! 

6. When will he come? 

7. He arose at a very early hour. 

8. The air is very clear, very still, and tenderly sad in its 

serene brightness. 

9. How seldom a good man inherits honor and wealth ! 

10. The noblest monuments gradually decay. 

11. It is too late for repentance now. 

12. Where is the boy? 

13. Loud shouts of merriment burst from the happy group. 

14. Pride goeth before destruction. 

15. The wolves prowled around the house. 

16. Nothing great can be accomplished without labor. 



112 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

1 7. The orders of the officers were heard above the din of 

battle. 

18. When he falls, he falls as I do. 

19. His face did shine as the sun. 

20. Come when the clock strikes nine. 

21. When the winds begin to blow, we generally go below. 

22. Take her up tenderly, 
Lift her with care, 
Fashioned so slenderly, 
Young, and so fair. 

Supply suitable adverbs : 

1. The lark sings in the clear heavens. 

2. Assistance was given, and received. 

3. The appearances of Nature are changing. 

4. The archer handled his bow . 

5. The terrified animal rushed through the arena. 

6. The lady was attired. 

7. The boy was warned of his danger. 

8. Men pursue fortune. 

9. soared the eagle. 

10. Bad habits are too : acquired. 

11. The moon shone . 

12. The ship was driven . 



13. The boy wrote his exercise . 

14. Eliza dances . 

15. Judge not of your neighbor. 

16. The soldiers were attached to their general. 

17. Fortune does not attend merit. 

Tell whether the clauses are adjectives, adverbs, or 
nouns, and why. Be sure that you know what work the 
clause does before you say what part of speech it is : 

1. I believe he will succeed. 

2. A man who lives a good life is usually respected. 



SUB-CLASSES Of WORDS. 113 

3. Birds are found where fruit abounds. 

4. This is the hour when the birds sing low. 

5. I look forward to a day when all will be changed. 

6. I remember the place where we met. 

7. I remember where we met. 

8. Where once we dwelt, our name no more is heard. 

9. Go where glory waits thee. 

10. He discovered why the apple falls. 

1 1 . They wish to know how you are. 

12. We can always tell when he is angry. 

13. It was as I said. 

14. Do you know why it is cold? 

15. His words were, ' Never give up the ship.' 

Of what part of speech is each italicized word or 
phrase : 

1. It stood yonder. 

2. Yonder house is sold. 

3. Did you go far •? 

4. I come from a far country. 

5. The lesson is easy to get. 

6. To get the lesson is easy. 

7. You are so rude. 

8. Do not talk so. 

9. He is very sick. 

10. He is the very man. 

11. You shall certainly go. 

12. Come up. 

13. Come up stairs. 

14. Are you well to-day? 

15. You have done well. 

16. I am no better. 

1 7. I have been ill. 

18. He rests little. 

19. I have no work. 



114 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

20. I was treated ill. 

21. He has little rest. 

22. Man wants but little here below. 

23. The book lies on the table. 

24. The book on the table is mine. 

25. From hill to hill the echo sounds. 

26. To be ridiculed is not pleasant. 

27. He means to accomplish his pmpose. 

28. The means to accomplish his purpose were wanting. 

29. They saw her sitting on the damp ground. 

30. Her sitting on the damp ground was injurious. 

Make sentences containing adverbs made from — 

large just terrible 

brave entire occasional 

noble honest steady 

careful public bright 

Examples — bold-ly, feeb-ly, frantic-al-ly, angrz-ly. 

Make six sentences having modified subjects and 
modified predicates, two of which shall contain ad- 
verbs modifying adjectives, two adverb-phrases, and 
two adverb-clauses modifying verbs. 

Diagram the following sentences : 

1. Guard against the sudden impulse of anger. 



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if 



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SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 
2. In the morning they spoke more calmly. 



115 




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/ y^^\y?^z^jyyu^ri^ /{>€& 



/T^Z^Les 



3. Lilies grow where the ground is moist. 



si%A4nts 



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opPWltfL 



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~stJ-sr?^t A 



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4. I know where I was born. 



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5. I remember the house where I was born. 



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U/ ' yi€^yu^ri^€4y 



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y \ swzzj- 






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FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



6. Oh, what a tangled web we weave 
When first we practise to deceive ! 



— — <o— 



9- 

10. 

ii. 

12. 

13- 
14. 

16. 

i7- 

18. 
19. 



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When does the moon change ? 

Can you tell wherein they differ ? 

Who knows whence he came ? 

Where there is a will there is a way. 

When the wine is in, the wit is out. 

I know a bank where the wild thyme grows. 

Whither I go ye know not. 

I came immediately when I heard you call. 

Why did you not answer when I spoke to you ? 

He would not tell where he had been. 

I have always assisted him when I could. 

You will certainly tell me why you are going ? 

He can go whenever he desires to do so. 



§ 6. Kinds of Prepositions. 

Howard hid behind the tree. 
The bird flew over the house. 
Crawford was pale with fear. 
Alice spoke in anger. 



. SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 117 

Fred cut his foot with an axe. 
Owen was struggling for life. 
Miss Garber started after sunset. 
The cause of temperance is gaining. 
The leg of the table was broken. 

Where did Howard hide ? Could he have hidden in the tree ? 
What word in the sentence chiefly shows where ? Where did 
the bird fly? Could the bird have flown into the house, or 
around the house? Which word in the sentence gives the 
direction chiefly? Why was Crawford pale? What caused 
him to be pale ? What word shows the relation of the cause 
(fear) to the effect (paleness) ? How, in what manner, did 
Alice speak? What word shows the relation between her 
speaking and her mood or manner? With what instrument 
did Fred cut ^his foot ? What word shows the relation of the 
instrument to the cutting ? For what purpose was Owen strug- 
gling? What word chiefly signifies purpose here? When did 
Miss Garber start? Could she have started before sunset, or 
at sunset ? What word shows diiefly the exact time ? Do we 
mean that every cause is gaining? Only the cause referring 
to what? Which is the relation- word ? What part of the table 
was broken ? What word shows the relation of this part to the 
whole ? 

Hence the relations expressed by prepositions are 
chiefly those of 

.They live in a cottage. ) Re$f .„ 

^„ J It stands on the hill. J 

Place < 

j He came from France. ) Motion with di- 

v She ran into the street. J rectum. 

Cause .... They suffered from hunger. 

Manner ... He wrote without care. 

Means, Instru- J He succeeded by industry. 

ment . . . ( He dug it up with a mattock. 



Il8 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Purpose . . . They searched the place for hidden treas- 
ure. 

Time ^ They came hy night * 

I. You may stay until Saturday. 

{She bought a book of music. 
Miss Rickey's essay on Renunciation. 
There is no question as to his ability. 
/ The leaves of the book. 
P +h Vi 1 J Which of you saw it ? 

J The trunk of the elephant, 
v The mayor of Boston. 

Point out the prepositions ; name the object of each, 
and the word to which the object is connected by the 
preposition ; tell, if possible, of what kind the relation 
is, — whether of place, time, or cause, etc.; what the 
phrase modifies, and what part of speech it is : . 

i. She is insane from anxiety. 

2. Will you be absent from home? 

3. We found rosebuds pink at the tips. 

4. The house by the river is a hotel. 

5. He came from the city. 

6. Those on the shelf are sold. 

7. The bucket hung in the well. 

8. The path of industry leads to success. 

9. My friend was with his regiment. 

10. Birds in great numbers fly over this grove. 

11. Some with blue plumage have dropped a handful of 

feathers for me. 

12. Quails from the North meet jays from the South. 

13. There are eggs in the nest near the vine. 

14. The mother-bird is mottled at the throat and along the 

breast. 

15. The river runs — from the mountains, by the fields, near 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. Iig 

the church, round the town, through the common, over the 
rocks, to the sea. 

Put in suitable prepositions : 

1. He wrapped his cloak closely him. 

2. The visitor passed the gate. 

3. Swallows build the eaves of the houses. 

4. The mighty Andes rise the clouds. 

5. The rich man distributed his wealth his relations. 

6. The two brothers divided the portion equally them. 

7. The popular candidate was received acclamations. 

8. He had now fled the reach of his pursuers. 

9. The sun is eclipsed the passage of the moon over 

his disk. 

10. The preacher discoursed the vanity of earthly 

wishes. 

11. Encourage a distaste idle pursuits. 



§ 7. Kinds of Conjunctions. 

1 . Who thinks or dreams of me ? 

2. She walks gracefully and firmly. 

3. Hamlet was actually insane, or he pretended to be so. 

4. He said that I should go, and that he would remain. 

5. He waited until the train left. 

6. We know that the moon is uninhabited. 

7. The fact that the moon is uninhabited is well known. 

Are ' thinks ' and ' dreams ' independent of each other ; 
does either modify the other? What word joins them? Parts 
independent of each other are of the same rank or order. What 
part of speech is ' gracefully ' ? Why ? What part of speech is 
1 firmly ' ? Why ? Are these two words of the same rank ? 
What word joins them ? Are the two assertions in 3 of the 
same rank? What word joins them? What is the object of 



120 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

' said ' ? What part of speech is ' that I should go ' ? What 
part of speech is ' that he would remain ' ? Are these clauses 
of the same rank? What word joins them? 

All such joining words are said to be co-ordinative. 

What word joins each clause of sentence 4 to the principal 
assertion? Are the principal assertion and a clause of the 
same or of different rank? What part of speech is the clause 
in 5 ? What word joins it to the principal assertion? Are the 
parts thus joined of the same or of different rank ? What part 
of speech is the clause in 6 ? What word joins it to the princi- 
pal assertion ? Does this word join parts of the same or of 
different rank ? What part of speech is the clause in 7 ? 
What word joins it to ' fact ' ? Are ' fact ' and the clause of the 
same or of different rank ? 

Since modifying parts are sub-ordinate, the conjunc- 
tions that introduce them are said to be subordinative. 

Co-ordinative conjunctions are those that connect parts of 
equal rank, parts neither of which modifies the other. 

We must overcome evil, or it will overcome us. 
Men may come, and men may go, but I go on forever. 
True friends are the same in prosperity and adversity. 
I know not when he came, nor when he went. 

Subordinative conjunctions are those that introduce 
clauses, or join parts of unequal rank. 

1. I am proud that I am an American. 

(after 

2. I did the work J be f° re ihe ordered it to be done. 

j when 

^ where 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 121 

as \ 

I did the work< because I he ordered it to be done. 
for 

since 



3 * ^ for 



f 



4. I will do the work if he says that I must. 

5. I will not do the work unless he says that I must. 

6. He was so weak that he fell. 

{that \ 

so that \ he might be great. 

in order that ) 

The dependent clause in the first sentence modifies 
what word? It is therefore what part of speech? The 
dependent clauses in 2 and 3 are what part of speech? 
Which denotes cause? Which denotes time? Which 
denotes place? 

What are the complete adverbial modifiers of will do 
in 4 and 5 ? That I must modifies what word? What 
kind of a complement is it? That he fell is what part 
of speech? Why? 

Put the dependent clauses first in some of these ex- 
amples, then read the sentences. Does the meaning 
remain the same? Thus: 

Since he ordered it to be done, I did the work. 
If he says that I must, I will do the work. 
That he might be great, he studied hard. 

Supply suitable conjunctions ; tell whether they are 
co-ordinative or subordinative, and why; what part of 
speech each clause is; whether the sentence is simple, 
complex, or compound : 



122 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

i. I shall not go I am invited. 

2. they are industrious, they will succeed. 

3. you wish to learn, you must study. 

4. Read naturally distinctly. 

5. I care not it rains snows. 

6. Cats catch birds rats. 

7. Margie Oril have come to see me ; they can- 

not stay long. 

8. Birds sing, flowers blossom, ■ children are happy, 

spring has come. 



9. John, James, William went to Boston ; 

Charles went to Chicago. 

10. I shall expect you it rains. 

11. I cannot tell it will rain, snow. 

1 2. James his brother come to see us every day. 

13. She knows she is beautiful. 

14. Washington is honored he was great good. 

15. I remained the school was dismissed. 

16. William Rufus reigned William the Conqueror died. 

1 7. We saw the lightning we heard the thunder. 

18. The riflemen fired the bugle sounded. 

Supply suitable conjunctions and diagram the sen- 
tences : 

1. you do not sow, you will not reap. 

2. you are careful, you will not get the prize. 

3. the lazy sailor had thrown put the rope at once, the 

drowning boy would have been saved. 

4. he promised great things, he did nothing. 

5. winter set in, the ant had gathered a good store of 

food. 

6. printing was invented, people wrote books with pen 

and ink. 

7. printing was invented, books became much cheaper. 

8. the shepherd was sleeping, the sheep were straying. 



SUB-CLASSES OF WORDS. 1 23 

Tell what part of speech each italicized word is : 

1 . Remain until sunset. 

2. Do not go until the sun has set. 

3. Think twice before you speak. 

4. Think twice before speaking. 

5. I have not seen my friend since he returned from Dublin. 

6. 1 have not seen my friend since. 

7. The earth is round. 

8. They fastened it round his neck. 

9. He is taking his daily round. 

10. Still waters are deep. 

1 1 . He was still struggling. 

12. Have you seen the still? 

13. It is so bright. 

14. I '11 not say thee nay, so thou wilt. 

15. That cannot be. 

16. Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out. 

17. I am glad that he is coming. 

18. They stayed //// night. 

19. Watch till I come. 

20. It was kept in the till. 

21. At what hour did you leave ? 

22. What do you wish? 

23. Remain while I am gone. 

24. They while away the time. 

25. After a while we returned. 

26. All but me were rewarded. 

27. I go, but I return. 

28. If we go, we can but die. 

29. And ere another evening's close he had passed away. 

30. And ere we could arrive [at] the point proposed. 

31. They travelled for pleasure. 

32. He cannot be a scholar,/^ he will not study. 

33. Nature all blooming, like thee rejoices. 

34. Like causes produce like effects. 



124 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

35. We like whatever gives us pleasure. 

36. We shall never see the like again. 

37. At the near approach of the star of day. 

38. We live near the springs. 

39. Books were never near so numerous. 

40. We shall near the lighthouse. 

41. He can debate on neither side of the question. 

42. We saw neither of them. 

43. The boy could neither read nor write. 

44. The next generation will see it. 

45. Adjectives should be placed next their substantives. 

46. The off ox should keep the furrow. 

47. William fell off the load. 

48. Love, and love only, is the loan for love. 

49. Only observe what a swarm is running after her. 

50. On the opposite bank of the river stood the house. 

51. We stood opposite the Exchange. 



ELEMENTS. 1 25 



CHAPTER VI. 

ELEMENTS. 

THE elements of a sentence are the parts used to ex- 
press the different ideas that make up the complete 
thought. 

The principal elements are the bare subject and the 
bare predicate. 

The bare subject is the unmodified subject. It is 
either a noun or the equivalent of a noun: 

( 1 ) A rolling stone gathers no moss. 
( 2 ) The good die young. 

(3) Two of a trade can ne'er agree. 

(4) Reading stories is a pleasant occupation. 

(5) To deceive a friend is to lie basely. 

(6) That he will succeed is clear. 

The bare predicate is the unmodified predicate. 
It is — 

1 . A verb : 

(1) The snow melted rapidly yesterday. 

(2) Every man must educate himself. 

2. A copulative verb and its complement: 

(1) Despatch is the soul of business. 

(2) Few persons are perfectly happy. 

(3) The stars look very small. 



126 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

(4) Young hearts never grow old. 

(5) Giving quickly is giving twice. 

(6) To give quickly is to give twice. 

(7) The fact is that he is blind. 

(8) His words were ' It does move.' 

Subordinate elements are modifying or dependent 
elements : 

1. Adjective: 

(1) Dull boys have become famous men. 

(2) The path of industry is the path to success. 

(3) Whittier, the Quaker poet, wrote ' Snow-bound.' 

(4) Children's manners show their training. 

(5 ) A farm sloping to the south is for sale. 

(6) He that liveth well liveth long. 

(7) Remember the maxim, ' Honesty is the best policy' 

2. Objective: 

(1) We should hide the faults of others. 

(2) Every man should learn to govern himself 

(3) They finished reciting verses. 

(4) We knew that he was wrong. 

(5) ' Know thyself he said. 

(6) She was wise in making that choice. 

3. Adverbial: 

(1) He walked slowly. 

(2) The paths of glory lead to the grave. 

(3) A messenger was sent to convey the news, 

(4) They shouted //// the woods rang. 

(5) He rested a few minutes. 

The entire or modified subject (as ' dull boys/ ' a 
farm sloping to the south ') is often called the complex 



ELEMENTS. \2J 

or logical subject. The entire or modified predicate 
(as 'finished reciting his verses/ 'knew that he was 
wrong') is likewise called the complex or logical 
predicate. 

Independent elements are the words and phrases not 
related to other parts of the sentence : 

(i) Papa, who makes it snow? 

(2) Alas / poor creature ! how she must have suffered. 

(3) Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 

(4) Well, shall we go? 

(5) To speak plainly, you are my enemy, and I am yours. 

Select the independent elements : 

1. Vain men! how little do we know what to pray for. 

2. Caesar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink. 

3. O solitude, where are the charms 
That sages have seen in thy face ? 

4. The sea, the sea, the boundless sea ! 
Let us rest beside the sea. 

5. O Father ! touch the east, and light the day. 

6. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll ! 

7. Mr. President, my object is peace. 

8. The Pilgrim fathers, where are they? 

9. The flag of the free, O long may it wave ! 

10. Permit me, sir, to add another circumstance. 

11. Youth ! he said, I forgive thee. 

12. My country ! \ is of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing. 

Remember that a word, phrase, or clause is adjective if it 
modifies a noun or pronoun ; objective, if it is the object 
of a preposition or an action- word; adverbial, if it modifies an 
adjective, an adverb, or an action-word, and is not an object. 



128 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

The parts of a sentence that connect the elements are 
connectives : 

Frequent the company of your betters. 

Beauty is the mark which God sets on virtue. 

Make the house where gods may dwell, clean, entire, and 

beautiful. 
He failed because he was dishonest. 

Subordinate elements may be simple, compound, or 
complex : that is, a modifier may itself be unmodified ; 
it may consist of two or more co-ordinate parts ; or it 
may be modified : 

i. Idle boys become poor men. 

2. To waste in youth is to want in age. 

3. We found him beaten, wounded, and deserted. 

4. Remarkably bright and evidently happy children were 

playing on the lawn. 

5. The man approached very cautiously. 

6. We may cover a multitude of sins — with the white robe 

of charity. 

7. The days are made on a loom, whereof the warp and woof 

are past and future time. 

The chief part of a complex modifier is its base. 
Thus, bright and happy, on lawn (preposition and its 
object), cautiously, multitude, with robe, on loom, are 
the bases in 4, 5, 6, and 7. 

Principal elements (bare subject, bare predicate) may 
be simple or compound : 

Bad habits gather by unseen degrees. 
To dare is great, but to bear is greater. 
Temperance fortifies and purifies the heart. 



ELEMENTS. 1 29 

A beautiful poem ox picture has a refining influence. 
How wonderfully have science and invention advanced ! 

Tell whether the sentences are simple, complex, or 
compound ; pick out the principal elements of each ; 
also the subordinate elements, and tell whether these 
are simple, compound, or complex ; what part of 
speech each is, and why; whether it is a phrase or a 
clause ; name the complements, the kind of each, and 
also the connectives: 

A boy, whose parents were dead, was so poor that he had 
nothing left but the clothes on his back and a loaf of bread in 
his hand. Putting his trust in God, he went out into the world. 
He travelled over hills and through valleys until he met an old 
woman. She begged him for something to eat. He gave her 
the whole loaf of bread, and went on his journey. Next, he 
met three little children crying and shivering with the cold. 
They prayed for some clothes to make them warm. So to one 
child he gave his hat; to another, his coat; and to another, 
his shoes and stockings. It was now growing dark, and the 
boy came to a big forest. He was cold and hungry, and had 
hardly any clothes left to cover his body. But when he went 
into the forest, a shower of silver dollars came down from the 
sky. They were shaped like stars, and were sent by God to 
the boy to reward him for his goodness. He had a warm 
supper and bed that night, in a cabin in the woods. All the 
rest of his life he lived in wealth and happiness. 

Write sentences, using the following words, first as 
adjectives, then as nouns : 

few methodist idle 

wise much Irish 

Indian this these 

proud ignorant some 



130 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Substitute single words for prepositional phrases and 
italicized parts ; then give the part of speech : 

i. Men of sense act with caution. 

2. They listened with attention. 

3. They acted with calmness and with wisdom. 

4. A man of truth will be believed. 

5. I went of my own accord. 

6. It can be done without difficulty. 

7. The statement cannot be denied. 

8. My labors are of no utility. 

9. Were the proceedings according to law ? 

10. We were wet to the skin. 

1 1. An attack that could not be resisted. 

12. He saw several mummies that were found in Egypt. 

13. My father spoke with kindness, but with firmness. 

14. The queen replied with pride. 

15. Yellow fever is in this place at the present time. 

16. Anna wears a dress of silk and a bonnet of straw. 

1 7. Harry has a hat of felt and a jacket of wool. 

18. Who lives in this place? 

1 9. The -sentence must be read with distinctness. 

20. The light faded by degrees. 

21. Men of piety are esteemed. 

22. The sun throws light on a whole hemisphere. 

23. The river flows without ceasing. 

24. The old man spoke with sadness. 

25. The same occurrence happened every day. 

26. We ascended the hill at the break of day. 

27. We prosecuted our journey in spite of the bad weather. 

28. The cuckoo pays us a visit each year. 

29. The bird was secured on the instant. 

30. He replied in a haughty tone. 

31. America was not discovered by chance. 

32. There were no railways at that time. 

33. Captain Cook sailed round the globe. 



ELEMENTS. 131 

Select the action-words in the following sentences : 

The traveller walked to the top of the hill and surveyed the 

country. 
Walking to the top of the hill, the traveller surveyed the 

country. 

What two things in the first sentence did the traveller 
do? Are both of these asserted? Did he, in the sec- 
ond sentence, perform the same acts? Is each act 
asserted here? Which of the action-words asserts? 
An action not asserted is said to be assumed. 

Make sentences, changing the assumed action of ver- 
bals to the asserted action of verbs : 

1 . studying music 4. captured in the act of stealing 

2. seeing the various displays 5. the horse running 

3. the factory having closed 6. the wind blowing 

Change assumed to asserted action, then name the 
principal elements: 

Models. 

(1) They boarded the vessel lying in the harbor. 
They boarded the vessel that lay in the harbor. 

(2) Wealth acquired dishonestly will prove a curse. 
Wealth that is acquired dishonestly will prove a curse. 
If wealth is acquired dishonestly it will prove a curse. 

(3) Being detected, he surrendered to the officer. 
He was detected, and surrendered to the officer. 
As he was detected, he surrendered to the officer 

When he was detected, he surrendered to the officer. 

1. The general, riding to the front, led the attack. 

2. The man, having fired, ran away. 



132 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

3. The balloon, shooting into the clouds, was soon lost to 

sight. 

4. The sun, rising, dispelled the mists. 

5. Caesar, having crossed the Rhone, gave battle. 

Substitute phrases or clauses for the italicized parts, 
and name the part of speech : 

Models. 

(1) Wealthy men should give liberally. 

Men of wealth should give with liberality. 

Men who are wealthy should give with liberality. 

(2) With patience he might have succeeded. 

If he had been patient \ he might have succeeded. 

(3) If is guilt or innocence is uncertain. 
Whether he is guilty or innocetit is uncertain. 

1. The sun was then thought to revolve around the earth. 

2. The studious boy was rewarded. ■ 

3. He boldly attacked the enemy. 

4. He rode skilfully. 

5. The vessels were of wood. 

6. He acted nobly. 

7. He believed the earth to be round. 

8. The manner of his escape is a mystery. 

9. The rain having ceased, we started. 

Change complex sentences into simple ones : 

Models, 

(1) Since I saw you, I have heard from my father. 
Since seeing you, I have heard from my father. 

(2) There are many ills that we cannot avoid. 
There are many unavoidable ills. 



ELEMENTS. 1 33 

(3) Alexander, who conquered the world, sighed for more 

worlds to conquer. 
Alexander, conqueror of the world, sighed for more 

worlds to conquer. 
Alexander, having conquered the world, sighed for more 

worlds to conquer. 

(4) Can you trust a man who habitually lies ? 
Can you trust an habitual liar ? 

1. The author, who is a woman, lives in Boston. 

2. Help those that are weak. 

3. Those that are rich should help those that are poor. 

4. Read such books as will be helpful. 

5. Goldsmith, who wrote 'The Deserted Village/ was born 

in Ireland. 

6. We lost all the fish that we caught. 

7. The gate that was broken is now mended. 

8. The dog that barks does not bite. 

9. As he walked toward the bridge, he met his friend. 

10. When he had spoken two hours, the member resumed 

his seat. 
n. Socrates declared that virtue is its own reward. 

12. After he had suppressed the conspiracy, he led his troops 

into Italy. 

13. When the boy saw his father, he ran to embrace him. 

14. When the teacher found his pupils idle, he reproved 

them. 

15. After the gentleman had settled his affairs, he left the 

country. 



What part of speech is the clause in each of the fore- 
going sentences, and why? 

Expand simple sentences into complex, and name 
the part of speech of each clause : 



134 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Models. 

(i) Large whales are seldom found. 

Whales that are large are seldom found. 

(2) De Foe, author of '' Robinson Crusoe,' was an Englishman. 
De Foe, who wrote ' Robinson Crusoe] was an Englishman. 

(3) Having been noisy, the boys were punished. 
Since they had been noisy, the boys were punished. 
The boys, since they had been noisy, were punished. 
The boys were punished because they were noisy. 

1. It will dry after sunrise. 

2. We must hasten to meet our friends. 

3. He promised me to go at once. 

4. A word to the wise 
Will always suffice. 

5. Cradled in the camp, Napoleon was the darling of the 

army. 

6. Having approved of the plan, the king put it into execu- 

tion. 

7. Satan, incensed with indignation, stood unterrifled. 

8. My friend, seeing me in need, offered his services. 

9. James, being weary with his journey, sat down on the wall. 

10. The owl, hidden in the tree, hooted through the night. 

1 1. His supplies having been exhausted, the general capitu- 

lated. 

12. We returned home, our work being finished. 

13. The jury having been sworn, the trial proceeded. 

14. The river being impassable, no attempt was made to 

cross it. 

15. Sheridan, hearing the guns, galloped from Winchester to 

take command. 

16. The Romans, having conquered the world, were unable 

to conquer themselves. 

1 7 . He went to town to buy a horse. 



ELEMENTS. 1 35 

Change the compound sentences into complex, and 
the rest either into compound sentences or into simple 
sentences with compound predicates : 

Models. 

(i) The sun rose, and we started. 
When the sun rose we started. 

(2) Charity, which begins at home, should not stay there. 
Charity begins at home, but should not stay there. 

(3) When he reached the middle of his speech, he stopped. 
He reached the middle of his speech, and stopped. 

(4) Those living in the Arctic regions need much oily food. 

Live in the Arctic regions, and you will need much oily 
food. 

(5) That you have wronged me doth appear in this. 
You have wronged me, and it doth appear in this. 

(6) Avoid swearing : it is a wicked habit. 
Avoid swearing, which is a wicked habit. 

1. With the dawn of morning, the clouds disperse. 

2. Prayer leads the heart to God, who always listens. 

3. When he asked me the question, I answered him cour- 

teously. 

4. Morse, the man who invented the telegraph, was a public 

benefactor. 

5. When spring comes, the birds will return. 

6. Pearls are valuable, and they are found in oyster-shells. 

7. Dickens wrote ' David Copperfield,' and he died in 1870. 

8. Some animals are vertebrates, and they have a backbone. 

9. We looked for a heavy shower, because the clouds were 

very dark. 

10. Emma could not read the story to me, because James 

had taken away the book. 

11. The child, playing by the river, fell into the water. 

12. My watch, losing time, was repaired by the jeweller. 



136 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

13. The sun, rising, scattered the fog. 

14. They went on board the vessel lying in the harbor. 

15. Catching the thief, they find the watch in his pocket. 

16. The balloon, rising rapidly, soon passed out of sight. 

17. A boy, riding an elephant, led the procession. 

Select the adjective, adverbial, and noun phrases, 
giving your reasons: 

1. At sea the distant clouds seem low. 

2. Regret for a misspent past will be useless. 

3. My workmen were once my employers. 

4. A collection of curiosities may become a museum. 

5. The miser willed his property to a college. 

6. Stone walls do not a prison make. 

7. Foolish people often feel wise. 

8. The Muses were the goddesses of art. 

9. Every day in thy life is a leaf in thy history. 

10. The cat's tongue is covered with thousands of little sharp 

cones, pointing toward the throat. 

11. The men found knives and forks on the tables. 

12. I will give you a key to the story of the fairy. 

13. Who would wish to be forgotten? 

14. They refused to release the prisoner. 

15. Do you regret having done no more? 

16. To get wisdom is a noble ambition. 

1 7. Making money absorbed his time. 

18. Many have tried to reach the North Pole. 

19. Columbus won immortality by discovering a new world. 

20. To try again, is to succeed. 

Tell in what respect the above verbals are like verbs, 
and in what they are like nouns and adjectives : 

Make three sentences with noun-complements, three 
with predicate adjectives, and three with predicate nouns. 



ELEMENTS. 1 37 

Write sentences in which the subject shall be modi- 
fied by: 

(i) An adjective. (4) A participial phrase. 

(2) A noun or pronoun de- (5) An infinite phrase. 

noting ownership. (6) A prepositional phrase. 

(3) A noun in apposition. (7) A clause. 

Write sentences in which the verb shall be modi- 
fied by: 

Place, 

Time, 
(1) An adverbial clause of <{ Cause, 

Manner, 

Condition. 



( An adverb, 

(2) A complex adverbial element ) An infinitive? 

whose base is ( A preposition; 

/ \ * , , . . 1 1 ( A noun, 

(3) A complex objective element whose J \- ' H V 

base is ) A , 



. prepositional adjunct. 



A clause. 

Make connected stories from the following outlines ; 
diagram your sentences, and exchange papers for 
criticism : 

The Strength of Union. 

An old man was on the point of death. He called his sons 
to his bedside. He ordered them to break a bundle of arrows. 
The young men were strong. They could not break the bundle. 
He took it in his turn. He untied it. He easily broke each 
arrow singly. He then turned toward his sons. He said to 
them. Mark the effect of union. United like a bundle, you 
will be invincible. Divided, you will be broken like reeds. 



138 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

King Alfred Learning to Read. 

When Alfred was a boy his mother had a book of poems 
with beautiful pictures — shows it to her children — promises it 
to the first who learns to read. Alfred resolves to try, though 
not the oldest, goes to his tutor, studies hard, quickly learns, 
reads and repeats a poem to his mother, receives the book. 

King Alfred and the Cakes. 

878 a. d. — King Alfred a fugitive — seeks shelter with a cow- 
herd — works for him — the cowherd's wife is baking one day — 
her cakes are on the griddle — she has to go out — bids Alfred 
look after them — he promises — is busy making bows and arrows 

— forgets the cakes — the good wife comes in — finds the cakes 
burned — scolds him — tells him he will be glad enough to eat 
the cakes — her dismay when she finds out that he is the king. 

King Alfred in the Danish Camp. 

Alfred still a fugitive — his army small — resolved to find out 
the plans of the Danes — dresses himself as a harper — reaches 
their camp — they are feasting — welcome the harper — make 
him play to them — he overhears the chiefs talk of their plans 

— morning comes — the harper has gone — the Danes wonder 

— Alfred soon comes with an army — gains a victory, and 
recovers his throne. 

Diagram Model. 



/?V7^frn/ 



tuns 



svt^uzs^/zj^zJ-jmsxsfit^^ ^ei£4£^£ / j&s&4£^zn> \/ei/ t^aisiinctj 



ELEMENTS. 



139 



Write sentences to illustrate each statement in the 
following 



Summary. 



1. The bare subject may be < 



2. The bare predicate 
may be 



(1) A noun, 

(2) A pronoun, 

(3) An infinitive, 

(4) A phrase, 

(5) A clause, 

(6) Two or more of the above 

united by conjunctions. 



(1) A verb or verb-phrase, transitive 

or intransitive. 

(2) A copulative verb or verb- 

phrase, with its complement. 



(1) The subject of a verb. 

(2) The complement of a copulative 
verb. 

a verb, 
a verbal, 
a preposition. 
(4) In apposition with another noun 
or pronoun. 
. (5) Independent. 



A noun or a pro- ^ ( > The object of j 
noun may be J 



4. A pronoun may 
be used 



(1) To do the work of a noun. 

(2) To ask a question. 

(3) To connect an adjective clause 

to the noun or pronoun that it 
modifies. 

(4) To introduce a noun-clause as 

subject, complement, or object. 



7- An adverb may be used < 



140 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

5. An adjective may ( (1) To complete a copulative verb, 
be used ( (2) To ask a question. 

!(i) To state a fact. 
(2) To express a command. 
(3) To ask a question. 

/ a verb, 

/ \ r r A . f ) a verbal, 

(1) To modify < ,. .. 
v y J J an adjective, 

I an adverb. 

(2) To ask a question. 

(3) To connect a clause to the 
word that it modifies. 

or. . r f (1) Elements. 

8. Sentences are composed of j (g) Connectives . 

/ (1) A preposition. 

) (2) A conjunction. 

9. A connective may be 1 (j) A rdative pronoun- 

v (4) A conjunctive adverb. 

i(i) Principal. 
(2) Subordinate. 
(3) Independent. 

_,, f (1) Independent. 

11. Clauses maybe j (z) Dependent 

_ . . f (1) Co-ordinative. 

12. Connectives may be \ , N , -,. .. 

^ ( (2) Subordmative. 

13. A co-ordinate connective J (i) Independent assertions. 

joins I (2) Co-ordinate modifiers. 



ELEMENTS. 141 

14. A subordinative 



(1) An adjective clause or an ad- 
verbial clause to the word 
connective joins <[ that it modifies. 

j (2) An objective element to its 
verb. 



or 

introduces 



(1) A subject clause. 

(2) A predicate clause. 
(1) Simple. 



15. A sentence may be < (2) Complex. 
' (3) Compound. 



142 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

CHAPTER VII. 

INFLECTIONS. 

YOU have learned that the meaning of a word may 
be changed by adding modifying words ; as, ' white 
man/ ' black man,' ' red man/ ' snow man/ But the 
meaning of a word is also changed by simply changing 
its form. Thus, a man denotes one person; men, more 
than one. We say, ' The m#n calls/ but * The m^n call ; ' 
' James is he* but ' James struck him! Different degrees 
of height are expressed by tall, taller, tallest. 

These changes are known as inflections. This name 
means changing the form of a word to denote a change 
of use. 

Inflections are used in only five of the eight classes 
of words, — Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and 
Adverbs. 

§ i. Inflection of Nouns, 

As you read these sentences, mention every noun 
or pronoun, and tell whether it denotes one or more 
than one: 

i. Walter drove the horse. 

2. The gardener planted the trees at the gate. 

3. A lady bought some oranges. 

4. Frank persuaded Thomas to go. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 43 

5. The wind blew the leaves across the lawn. 

6. Amos cut his finger with the knife. 

7. They take coal and iron out of the earth. 

8. Lucy erased the marks with a rubber. 

9. Oxen are grazing in the pasture. 

10. Birds sing among the branches. 

11. Oranges grow in Florida. 

1 2. Date-palms also grow there, but the dates do not ripen. 

13. My uncle's library is full of books ; one of them is the 
story told by Marco Polo, the traveller, to his fellow- 
prisoner at Genoa. 

The change in the form of a noun by which it is made to 
express one or more than one, is called number. 

A noun which denotes but one is of the singular 
number. 

A noun which denotes more than one is of the plural 
number. 

The plural of nouns is generally made by adding the 
letter s to the singular: boy, boys ; hand, hands. 

Write the plural of — 



book 


page 


letter 


scholar 


ball 


guide 


finger 


soldier 


arm 


up 


tree 


friend 


shoe 


thought 


lad 


monarch 


ship 


king 


ram 


aunt 


bee 


sea 


rock 


hoof 


egg 


sigh 


lot 


window 


barn 


boy 



Can you say adzs, fishs, or matchsf Not easily. 
Hence words ending in sounds like x, s, z, sh, or cli 
(not sounded like k) } form their plural by adding es, 
because in this way they can be more easily spoken. 



144 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Write the plural of — 

chair monarch inch waltz 

pass honey church mitten 

gulf bush spoon wish 

fox hoof apple pear 

safe chimney sash plant 

When a singular noun ends in y after a, e, i, or u, it 
is changed to the plural by adding simply s ; but when 
it ends in y after any other letter, it is made plural by 
changing y to i and adding es. 

Write the plural of — 



day 


delay 


donkey 


valley 


pulley 


pony 


lady 


lily 


sky 


fly 


story 


Sunday 


candy 


honey 


boy 


fancy 


baby 


way 


monkey 


daisy 


joy 


navy 


study 


turkey 



Some nouns ending in / or fe are made plural by 
changing f to v and adding es. 
Write the plural of- — 

cow gas elf bug 

calf half loaf sheaf 

leaf beef wife like 

knife wolf shelf wharf 

pasture lash country self 

Some nouns form their plural by changing the vowel 
(a, e, i, o, or u) of the singular ; as, man, men ; goose, 
geese; tooth , teeth; foot '; feet ; mouse, mice; woman, 
women. 



INFLECTIONS. 



145 



Letters, figures, and signs are made plural by adding 
's. Thus: 

Cancel the 9's. 

Do not make your r's and v's alike. 

Distinguish between your n's and &'s. 

Tell the number of — 



ass 


ways 


teeth 


deer 


inches 


oxen 


pigeon 


tools 


token 


geese 


swine 


flies 


class 


box 


ashes 


happiness 


wealth 


woman 


tongs 


gold 


ice 


money 


news 


series 


folk 


gas 


wages 


poultry 



Substitute the plural for the singular, and the singu- 
lar for the plural, of each noun ; and make such other 
changes as the sense requires : 

1. The little boy is good. 

2. Flowers are sweet. 

3. The little flowers are very sweet. 
- 4. Horses are animals. 

5. Good horses are very useful animals. 

6. The young ladies were very beautiful. 

7. You are a lazy boy. 

8. The little children were intensely happy. 

9. Very old men are nearly always uneasy. 

10. How happy are the little birds ! 

11. The goose hissed at her. 

12. Where is the key? 

A few nouns change their form, to show whether the 
object named is a male or a female. Thus: 

The lion has a long mane. 
The lioness has no mane. 



146 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

The Emperor of Germany is dying. 
The Empress of India is growing old. 

A noun (such as actor, lion) which is used to name a 
male only, is of the masculine gender. Gender means 
kind, sex. 

A noun (such as actress, lioness) which is used to 
name a female only, is of the feminine gender. 

Nouns which show which sex is meant (such as son, 
daughter, heir, heiress) are called gender nouns. 

Sometimes the feminine adds ess to the masculine ; 
as prince, princess. 

More often the feminine is a wholly different word 
from its corresponding masculine ; as boy, girl. 

With most nouns, however, the same form is used for 
both sexes, and words like poet, editor, doctor, author 
may refer to a person of either sex, just as do parent, 
child, friend, cousin. 

Put nouns of masculine gender in one column, and 
those of feminine gender in another: 

Abbot, abbess ; actor, actress ; Francis, Frances ; Jesse, 
Jessie ; bachelor, maid ; beau, belle ; monk, nun ; gander, 
goose ; administrator, administratrix \ baron, baroness ; count, 
countess ; czar, czarina ; don, donna ; boy, girl ; drake, duck ; 
lord, lady ; nephew, niece ; landlord, landlady ; gentleman, 
gentlewoman ; peacock, peahen ; duke, duchess ; hero, hero- 
ine ; host, hostess ; Jew, Jewess ; man-servant, maid-servant ; 
sir, madam ; wizard, witch ; marquis, marchioness ; widow, 
widower ; heir, heiress ; Paul, Pauline. 

To denote that a certain house belongs to Dr. 
Baldwin, we can say: 



INFLECTIONS. 1 47 

The house owned by Dr. Baldwin ; 
The house that is owned by Dr. Baldwin ; 
The house of Dr. Baldwin ; or, 
Dr. Baldwin's house. 

The little curved mark so used is called an apostrophe. 
The noun to which it and the s are added to denote 
ownership is then said to be in the possessive case. 

Case is the relation which a noun or pronoun sus- 
tains to some other word. The only case-form for 
nouns is the possessive. Thus, in the following there 
is for the different uses no change in the form of boy, 
except in the last sentence: 

1. The boy is well. 

2. This is the boy. 

3. I saw the boy. 

4. I went to the boy. 

5. The boy's parents are dead. 

It is usual, however, to say that the subject of a verb 
or of a predicate noun, as in 1 and 2, is in the nomina- 
tive (or naming) case, and that the object of a verb 
or of a preposition, as in 3 and 4, is in the objective 
case. 

When the plural ends in s, the apostrophe only is 
added in making the possessive ; as, boys' hats. 

Write the possessive singular and the possessive 
plural of — 



fox 


calf 


negro 


wolf 


hero 


tree 


wife 


goose 


foot 


knife 


clock 


army 


woman 


sheep 


author 


church 


turkey 


mouse 


baby 


sculptor 



148 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Change the possessive nouns to prepositional phrases : 

1. Children's manners show their training. 

2. Your money will be used for soldiers' monuments. 

3. Is there a proverb about kings' daughters? 

4. Greenland's warm climate is its greatest treasure. 

5. Winter's rude tempests are gathering now. 

6. Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness. 

7. You '11 find hornets' nests there. 

8. The Hudson's banks are romantic. 

9. The robin's arrival is a sign of spring. 

10. Australia's eastern coast is rugged. 

11. Elephants' tusks are ivory. 

12. Washington's home was Mount Vernon. 

13. Deer's hoofs are divided into two parts. 

Change italicized parts to possessive nouns without 
changing the sense: 

1. Gloves suitable for ladies are sold here. 

2. Gloves belongi?ig to a lady were found. 

3. He is freed from the troubles of life. 

4. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man. 

5. The boat that is owned by my brother is gayly painted. 

6. The watch that my father owns keeps perfect time. 

7. The crown that is worn by Queen Victoria is set with 

costly jewels. 

8. The poem ' Evangeline/ that was written by Longfellow, 

is very beautiful. 

9. The scales that are made by Fairbanks are used all over 

the world. 
10. The victory that Washington gained at Trenton gave joy 
to Americans. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 49 

§ 2. Inflection of Pronouns. 

The pronouns of the first persons are : 



I 




my 


mine 


me 




myself 


we 




our 


ours 


us 




ourselves 


The 


pronouns of th< 


* second 


person 


are 




thou 


thy 


thine 


thee 




thyself 


ye 




your 


yours 


you 




yourself 


The 


pronouns of the third person are : 




he 


she 




they 




it 


themselves 


his 


her 


(hers) 


their (theirs) 


its 


himself 


him 


her 




them 




itself herself 



Remember that /, we, thou, ye, he, she, they, and who 
are nominative forms, and must not be used in the 
objective case. 

Remember that me, us, thee, him, her, them, and 
whom are objective forms, and must not be used in the 
nominative case. 

Remember that my or mine, thy or thine, our or ours, 
your or yours, his, her or hers, its, their or theirs, and 
whose, are possessive forms. 

Remember that we, our, us, ye, they, their, them, are 
plural forms ; that /, my, me thou, thy, thee, he, she, and 
it are singular; XhdXyou and your are either singular or 
plural. 

Remember that the pronouns he, his, him, and 
himself denote a male, and are of the masculine 
gender. 



ISO 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



Remember that the pronouns she, her, hers, herself, 
denote a female, and are of the feminine gender. 

Remember that the pronouns it, its, itself, are neither 
masculine nor feminine, and are called neuter pronouns, 
or pronouns of the neuter gender. Neuter means 
neither. 

Remember that pronouns must agree with their ante- 
cedents in number, gender, and person. 

Remember that the relative who represents persons ; 
which, animals or things; that, persons, animals, and 
things ; and what, things. 

Pronouns : Personal. 



Per- 
son. 


Gender. 


Singular. 


Plural. 


Nom. Poss. 


Obj. 


Nom- Poss. Obj. 


ISt 


m. or f. 


I my, mine 


me 


we our, ours us 


2d 


m. or f. 


thou thy, thine 


thee 


ye, your, yours you 


f 


mas. 


or you your, yours 
he his 


or you 

him 1 


or yow 


3 d 1 


fern. 


she her, hers 


her r 


they their, theirs them 


I 


neut. 


it its 


it J 





Singular or Plural 



Interrogative and Relative. 

Nominative. Possessive. 

( who whose 

< w 



Objective. 

who whose whom 

hoever whosever whomever 

whosoever whosesoever whomsoever 



Tell of what person, number, and case each of these 
words is: 





INFLECTIONS. 




151 


them 


our 


that 


thy 


him 


your 


whose 


whom 


mine 


my 


whichever 


their 


themselves 


what 


her 


herself 


thine 


yourself 


it 


which 



Give the person, number, gender, and case of each 
pronoun: 

1. Is your friend with you? 

2. My friend, you are very kind. 

3. You are not your own master. 

4. Children, you must be quiet. 

5. Boys, you are making a noise. 

6. Your father sent it to my care. 

7. I asked him for his address. 

8. He wanted yours and mine. 

9. Does your sister know them? 

10. We must inform our friends. 

11. They will forget us. 

12. It is I. 

13. We are frail. 

14. You and he are strong. 

15. Few are stronger. 
1 6c Who knocks? 

17. To whom shall they go? 

18. Is this the house which he built? 

19. Which are they? 

20. Did you call us? 

21. That on the hill is his. 

22. Which is yours? 

23. Thou art she whom he calls. 

24. Bring what he wants. 

25. What is his name? 

26. I cannot tell what his name is. 

27. I that speak unto you am he. 

28. Many are called, but few are chosen. 



152 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

29. I have none to go with me. 

30. We respect those that respect themselves. 

Supply suitable pronouns : 

1. The baby was playing, and would not go to sleep. 

2. I warmed the bird, and then flew away. 

3. The wood was dry, so burned well. 

4. will rain. 

5. snows. 

6. art God, and besides there is none. 

7. He is taller than . 

8. I am younger than . 

9. spoke to you. 

10. did he say? 

11. did you speak? 

12. did you see? 

13. This is the man I saw. 

14. did he praise? 

1 5 . Did he praise you and ? 

16. The boy we loved has left us. 

1 7. These are the girls and boys we saw skating. 

Write every pronoun that may be used as subject or 
complement: 

am expecting . 



It is 



am sure that will come. 

■ is going home, 
are not coming to-day. 
art with me. 



Who struck • 
The fault is 



Select the proper relative : 



INFLECTIONS. 1 53 

! which ] 
that r was here has returned, 
who j 

!whom ] 
that / you saw is mine, 
which J 

/ which 

m J that 

3. The man < , f was hurt is my father. 

v whom 
/ who \ 

4. Such a boy < /-he is will succeed. 
^ J j as ( 

V that / 

Change singular nouns to plural, plural to singular, 
and make such other changes as are necessary: 

1. Let the girl answer for herself. 

2. The soldiers must obey their officers. 

3. Every animal has some weapon with which to defend 

itself. 

4. The birds build their nests in the trees. 

5. An eagle builds her nest on the top of a high rock. 

Use each of these words as a pronoun and as an 
adjective : 

some one this which 

all that other what 

Use each of these words as preposition and as an 
adverb : 

above below near around 



154 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Use as an adjective and as an adverb : 

yonder daily nearer more less 

Use each of these words as a noun and a verb : 
bridle value will second pity 

§ 3. Inflection of Adjectives. 

When we wish to compare two or more things with 
respect to some quality common to them, the difference 
may often be expressed by slightly changing the form 
of the adjective applied to each. Thus : 

Cincinnati is large. 

Boston is larger. 

New York is the largest. 

The Amazon is a long river. 

The Nile is longer. 

The Mississippi is the longest of all. 

Your stick is short. 

His is shorter. 

Mine is shortest. 

The three cities are large, the three rivers are long, 
the three sticks are short, but in three different degrees. 

The simple form of the adjective is called its posi- 
tive degree ; as large, long, short. 

The form of an adjective which denotes a higher or 
a lower degree than the positive is called the compara- 
tive degree ; as larger, longer, shorter. 

The form of an adjective which denotes the highest 
or lowest degree of the quality expressed, is called the 
superlative degree ; as largest, longest, shortest. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 55 

The inflection of an adjective to denote different degrees of 
quality or quantity is comparison. 

The ordinary way of comparing adjectives is, for the 
comparative degree, to add r or er to the positive, and 
st or est for the superlative. 

The comparative degree is used when two things are 
compared. 

The superlative degree is used when three or more 
things are compared. 

Again, we might say of three sisters : 

Alice is beautiful, 
Mabel is beautifuler, 
Bertha is beautifulest. 

But this would be too clumsy. It is easier to say : 

Alice is beautiful, 
Mabel is more beautiful, 
Bertha is the most beautiful. 

or, taking them the other way, we may say : 

Bertha is beautiful, 
Mabel is less beautiful, 
Alice is least beautiful. 

Hence another method of expressing comparison is 
to prefix the adverbs more and most, or less and least, 
thus making adjective phrases. 

Some adjectives are compared irregularly; and to 
be sure of using them correctly, you must learn the 
comparison of each : 



156 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



Good 


better 


best 


Bad ) 
111 J 


worse 


worst 


Little 


less 


least 


Much | 
Many J 


more 


most 


Far 


farther 


farthest 



Two adjectives are inflected for number, — the de- 
monstratives this and that> which have the plurals these 
and those. 

Compare such of the following adjectives as admit 
comparison, and give your reason for thinking that 
some of them are not compared : 



Able 


old 


universal 


tenth 


fatal 


sour 


warm 


sad 


naked 


juicy 


certain 


ill-mannered 


wrong 


equal 


many 


lovely 


American 


fashionable 


pleasant 


thoughtless 


tough 


hollow 


blind 


handsome 


brave 


English 


vain 


humble 


acceptable 


good-natured 


empty 


these 


few 


cheerful 


preferable 


false 


sweet 


late 


luscious 


particular 


void 


generous 


diligent 


wet 


lucrative 


ill 


round 


supreme 


deaf 


dry 


soft 


timid 


evil-minded 


honest 





Supply suitable adjectives: 



i . Of the two sisters, Cora is the . 

2. His apple is the . 

The rose is the flower in the garden. 

He is than his brother. 

She is than her sister. 



Alice has the dress in the company. 



INFLECTIONS. 



157 



9- 
10. 
ii. 

12. 

*3- 



The elephant is the land animal. 

The horse is a animal than the mule. 

Gold is and has a lustre than silver. 

This peach is and than yours. 

He is the pupil in the school. 

Gold is and than iron. 

Mr. Smith owns a house, and is the 

the city. 



man in 



Change comparatives and superlatives to equivalent 
adjective phrases; change phrases to equivalent adjec- 
tives ; then change them all to phrases denoting lower 
and lowest degrees : 



serener 
more stupid 
handsomer 
fittest 

most ample 
more nimble 



wildest 
most witty 
more shallow 
more handy 
narrowest 
braver 



more severe 

ugliest 

most sincere 

sauciest 

slenderest 

gentlest 



§ 4. Inflection of Adverbs. 

Adverbs in general have no change of form. A few, 
however, are compared like adjectives; as, soon, sooner, 
soonest. 

Many adverbs (especially those ending in ly) are 
given a comparative or a superlative meaning by the 
use of more and most, or less and least. 

Sometimes different words are used in making the 
comparison : 

Ida reads well. 

She is learning to read better. 

She will soon read best. 



158 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Name the adverbs; and compare, either by change 
of form or by the use of equivalent phrases, such as 
can be compared : 

1. He speaks slowly. 

2. He speaks much too fast. 

3. She rose early in the morning, and soon finished her work. 

4. Did you call once, or twice ? 

5. I am very well pleased. 

6. She was willing to take a more humble part. 

7. These are the most important mountain ranges. 

Make sentences showing the use of the words in the 
following table as adjectives and as adverbs: 



Positive. 


Comparative. 




Superlative. 


well 


better 






best 


ill (badly) 


worse 






worst 


much 


more 






most 


little 


less 






least 


far 


farther 


(or 


further) 


farthest (or furthest) 



Supply adverbs expressing possibility, probability, or 
certainty : 

1. He will come, but it is not certain. 

2. he could not have heard you, else he would have 

answered. 

3. he did not hear me, but I fear he did. 

4. He said he should come ; so I assured my friends 

that he would be present. 

5 . He may have seen you ; but if he had, a civil boy, 

as he is, would have tried to help you. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 59 

Change the adverbs into equivalent phrases : 

i. He is to be treated kindly. 

2. Time should not be spent idly. 

3. He behaved imprudently. 

4. The pupils read distinctly. 

5. You are doubtless correct. 

6. I will stay here. 

7. Study the lesson thoroughly. 

8. The judge decided promptly. 

9. Measure the distance accurately. 

10. She was fashionably dressed. 

1 1 . He speaks French fluently. 

12. We waited for you patiently. 

13. Where have you been? 

14. Where are you going? 

15. When will you return? 



§ 5. Inflection of Verbs. 

A verb may assert of only one person or thing : 

r laughs 

\ wishes for a knife 
% The boy J has a knife 
J was sick 
* zs better 

A verb may assert of more than one person or 

thing: 

r laugh 

I wish for knives 
The boys < have knives 
f were sick 
^ are better 



l6o FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Why is the word ' laugh ' used to assert something of 
1 boys ; ' and ' laughs/ to assert something of * boy ' ? 
Which can be spoken more easily, — ' The boys 
laughs/ or ' The boys laugh ; ' ' The boy laugh/ or 
' The boy laughs ' ? We see that the pronunciation is 
easier and pleasanter if the s is added to the verb or 
omitted from it, according as the subject is singular 
or plural. This is all that is meant by the usual rule : 

A verb must agree in number with its subject. 

A verb used to assert of only one person or thing is 
in the singular member ; as, * wishes/ ' has/ 'was/ 'is/ 

A verb used to assert of more than one person or 
thing is in the plural number ; as, ' wish/ ' have/ ■ were/ 
' are/ 

Supply is, are, was, or were : 

i. Mary in the garden. 

2. Mary and Alice in the garden. 

3. The bird shy. 

4. The birds shy. 

5. Rover lonesome. 

6. those marbles yours? 

7. James and William away. 

8. The snow flying. 

9. Our hands cold. 

10. They here. 

n. The sailor on the ship. 

12. The ashes taken away. 

13. The kittens asleep when I saw them. 

14. One of you mistaken. 

15. Six too many apples for you. 



INFLECTIONS. l6l 

1 6. My fingers frozen. 

17. It not your fault. 

Supply the correct form of a verb, and tell whether 
the verb is singular or plural : 

1. The blaze up the chimney. 

2. The cat a mouse. 

3. The cats some mice. 

4. Mary, Clara, and I members of the choir. 

5. They — — music. 

6. The wind — — violently to-day. 

7. When men their duty, they happy. 

8. The star all night. 

9. The stars all night. 

Now observe what changes take place in a verb of the 
singular number when the subject is of the first, second, 
or third person : 

I ( see, \ 

or \ or > a book 

you v have ) 

{sees 
or 
has ) 




or < was sick, 
he ( 



You were sick. 



We 

you 

they 



were sick. 



Yam \ We J 

you are \ well. you r are well. 

he is ) they ' 



162 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Am, are, is, was, and were are called forms of the 
copula be. With this exception (and changing have to 
has), we see that the verb is varied for person only, by- 
adding s or es when the subject is of the third person 
and singular number. Accordingly, this is called the 
third-singular form. 

A long time ago changes in the verb to suit the per- 
son and number of the subject were more frequent than 
now. Two old-style forms, such as we see in the Bible, 
are still used in prayer and poetry. Thus, with thou as 
subject, the verb ends in est, st, or t : 

Thou, O Lord, holdzst us in thy hand. 

Thou seest us. 

Thou art from everlasting. 

Thou werX. faithful to the end. 

Thou madest the world. 

Instead of the usual third-singular form in s, a form 
in th or eth, may be used : 

Whom the Lord lovetYi he chasteneth. 

You will understand, therefore, what is meant (and 
how little) by the usual rule that verbs must agree 
with their subjects in number and person : 

Add es to each of these words to make the third- 
singular, then use it in a sentence : 

do wish push watch 

go catch fix dress 

Add s to each of the following, then use the resulting 
form in a sentence : 





INFLECTIONS. 




burn 


shine swim 


write 


cut 


bear hope 


read 



163 



Change y to i at the end of each of the following, 
add es, then use the resulting form in a sentence : 

fly dry carry fancy 

try deny worry hurry 

Fill each blank with /, you, thou, he, we, they, it, and 
spell the third-singular of the verb : 

wish lie find do 

have cry wait smash 

Fill the blanks with the proper form of be, have, or 

do : 

1. My cousins riding in a sleigh. 

2. The cat watching a mouse. 

3. your uncle come? 

4. Emily lost her knife. 

5. she lost her umbrella. 

6. The cow horns. 

7. The cow and the horse hoofs. 

8. My name Charley Clark. 

9. I older than Margie. 

10. Willie and I playmates. 

11. I sure that all men sometimes wrong. 

12. A poet says, ' Whatever , is right.' 

13. Thou a shadow on thy brow. 

14. thou a friend? I . 

15. Lives there a man who ■ not sin? 

16. Whales less numerous than they were. 

17. He {old form) not listened; he {old form) 

not hear. 

18. We, who the chief sufferers, come to complain. 



164 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

19. It is thou that the aggressor. 

20. They who right their reward. 

21. You and I, who been waiting so long, will now take 

our turn. 

22. You and he not answer. 

23. He and I going. 

24. Even I, who surrounded by comforts, know what 

sorrow . 

25. The foliage fresh, the fields charming. 

A verb may tell what any person or thing does at the 
present time : 

I know my lesson. 
He walks to school. 
They catch fish in the river. 

A verb may tell what any person or thing did in past 

time: 

I knew my lesson yesterday. 
He walked to school last week. 
They caught fish in the river. 

Add ed to each of the following to denote past time, 
then use it in a sentence : 

work sail show talk 

wait turn sow wish 

Since the following end in e> add only d fopcthe same 
purpose ; then use the resulting form in a sentence : 

LI Of J J - 

hope smoke live r37f#Wiise 

love use please — — smile 

V>) . 

Change y to i, add ed, then use each verb in a sen- 
tence : 



INFLECTIONS. 165 

cry carry rely study 

try fancy reply spy 

The change of the verb to denote time is called 
tense. This name is from the Latin word tempus, and 
means time. 

A verb that denotes present time is of the present 
tense. 

A verb that denotes past time is of the past tense. 

The past tense is usually formed by adding d or ed 
to the present tense. This is the regular way. 

In a number of the oldest verbs the change appears 
in the middle of the word, whether anything is added 
or not: 



Present Tense. 


Past Tense. 


fall 


fell 


see 


saw 


stand 


stood 


lead 


led 


do 


did 


may 


might 


shall 


should 


will 


would 


can 


could 


think 


thought 



Future time, as we shall presently learn, is expressed, 
not by an inflection, but by using in connection with 
the verb such words as shall, will, etc. : ' He will fall ; ' 
* He shall see.' 

Make sentences containing each form in the preced- 
ing lists. 



i66 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



Verbs that form their past tense by addi7ig ed or d to 
the present, are said to be regular. 

Verbs that form their past tense in some other way are 
irregular. 

For the past tenses of two verbs, be and go, different 
words are used, — was and went. 

Write the present tense of the following, and tell 
whether the verb is regular or irregular: 



came 


wept 


strung 


sang 


blinded 


rose 


sat 


was 


folded 


raised 


patted 


played 


began 


could 


caught 


worked 


stood 


walked 


chose 


came 


waited 


bit 


tried 


crept 


struck 


blew 


broke 


flew 


gazed 


brought 


burned 


whipped 


did 


bled 


dug 



The manner in which an assertion is made, is 
called mode. 

A verb may be used to state a fact or to ask a ques- 
tion: 

He studies diligently. 
He does all things well. 
Are you ready? 
Who wishes this? 

When a verb asserts its idea as a fact, a denial, or a 
question, it is said to be in the indicative mode. Most 
verbs are of this kind : 

A verb may be used to express a command : 

Be ready. 
Study diligently. 
Do all things well. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 67 

When a verb asserts its idea as the will of the speaker 
toward something spoken to, it is said to be in the 
imperative mode. 

There is no inflection — nothing about the form of 
the verb — to show in which manner it is used. The 
order of words y however, is commonly different in a 
question, and the omission of the subject may distinguish 
a command from a statement. 

The inflection of the verb for person, number, and tense 
is called its conjugation. 



A regular verb is conjugated thus: 

( turn 
Present \ turns (or turneth), with a third-singular subject. 
I turnest, with thou as subject. 



„ . (turned 

I turnedst, with thou as subject. 



An irregular verb is conjugated thus; 

( give 
Present \ gives (or giveth), with a third- singular subject. 
(. givest, with thou as subject. 

*•* { gave . 'A » 

( gavest, with thou as subject. 
Learn the following conjugations: 



1 68 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Be. 

/am, with /as subject. 
J art, with /&?// as subject. 
J is, with any third-singular subject. 

Indicative <{ are > w * tn y° u or an ^ P^ ura ^ subject. 

/ was, with any singular subject, — 

n ) not with thou, nor you. 
Past < 

J wast or wert, with thou as subject. 

' were, with you or any plural subject. 

Imperative — be . 

May. 

Present X 

\ mayest, with thou as subject. 



Past 



( might 

( mightest, or mightst, with thou as subject. 

Can. 

Present \ 

\ canst, with thou as subject. 

Past | could 

1 couldst, with thou as subject. 

Shall. 

Present \ 

{ shall, with thou as subject. 

should 



1 shouldst, with thou as subject. 

Will. 

P/'esent "^ 

( wilt, with thou as subject. 

Past ' would 

1 wouldst, with thou as subject. 



INFLECTIONS. 169 

Do. 



/do 



Present J dost ( or doest), with thou as subject. 

\ does, doth, or doeth, with a third-singular 
V subject. 

A*/ ' did 

\ didst, with thou as subject. 

Have. 
( have 
Present < hast, with /#0# as subject. 

'has, hath, with any singular subject. 

p f had 

I had st, with thou as subject. 

Conjugate: 



dry- 


gaze 


sing 


ship 


wrap 


merit 


submit 


glorify 


differ 


compel 


rob 


omit 



If you are doubtful about the spelling, consult your 
dictionary. 

Change the following sentences so that each shall 
state or ask something about more than one thing : 

1. The book has a green cover. 

2. The car has started. 

3. Has the boy come? 

4. A spider has eight legs. 

5. Your brother has been here. 

6. Has the watch stopped ? 

Supply verbs, and tell why the verb chosen is of the 
correct form : 



lyo FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

A little girl, by name Lucy Gray, one winter afternoon 

with a lantern to meet her mother. She smartly on 

through the snow. The storm on sooner than her father 

. The snow so thick that she her way. She 

up and down ; many a hill she , but never the 

town. Her mother home alone. Both parents immedi- 
ately in search of their beloved daughter. All night 

they far and wide, but neither sound nor sign of her 

whom they . When daylight the mother the 

prints of Lucy's feet in the snow. They then — — the foot- 
marks down the hill-side to the wooden bridge that the 

river. At the middle of the plank the marks , and be- 
neath the swollen stream. They bitter tears of sor- 
row. ' Oh ! my darling child,' the poor mother, ' thou 

to an untimely end for my sake.' They never their 

daughter more. The neighbors, all of whom Lucy, 

deeply for her loss. 

Put in suitable verbs, and tell whether the verb is 
transitive or intransitive, of what tense it is, how its 
other tense is written, and whether it is regular or 
irregular : 

i. The duke yesterday. 

2. Tom a lot of marbles, but he soon them all. 

3. He me to soon. 

4. me your copy-book. 

5. I never so many blunders. 

6. The gardener the bushes. 

7. The audience then , ' God the Queen.' 

8. The old man home with a bundle of sticks which 

he in the wood. 

9. The volunteers twice a week, and through 

the town. 

10. Those cruel boys the ass with big sticks, and 

stones at him. 



INFLECTIONS. 



171 



11. The farmer his crop of hay by the late floods. 

12. Now, children, up and a hymn before you 



We have seen elsewhere (p. 72) that from almost 
every verb are formed two special kinds of verbal 
words having the use of other parts of speech. These 
are the participle and the infinitive. 

Select the action-words in the following : 

They are singing. 

The winds are wailing through the echoing woods. 

The mailed letters were returned. 

The boy has broken the glass. 

John has caught the ball. 

Does ' singing/ like an adjective, tell something about 
the subject? Does it represent the action as going on, 
or as finished? Does ' wailing* tell something about 
the winds, and 'echoing* about the woods? Is the 
action represented as going on, or as finished? What 
is the difference between ' The wailing winds ' and ' The 
winds are wailing ' ? 

Do i mailed ' and ' returned ' tell us something about 
the letters? Is the action represented as going on, or 
as finished? Do the letters perform the action, or do 
they receive it? Does 'broken* help to represent the 
boy as doing, or as having something done to him? Is 
the action represented as going on, or as finished? 
Does 'caught* help to represent John as doing or re- 
ceiving the action? Does the action go on, or is it 
finished? 



IJ2 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

An action represented as going on, may be said to be 
imperfect. An action represented as finished, may be 
said to be perfect. 

Accordingly, there are two leading participles, — the 
imperfect, which expresses incomplete action or state ; 
and the perfect, which expresses completed action or 
state. These two are often combined, as in 

The glass being broken, the boy ran. 
The boy, having broken the glass, ran. 

The imperfect participle is formed by adding ing to 
the present tense of the verb : 

Crawford, turning, noticed me. 
I saw him coming. 
He was running. 

Since the imperfect participle describes the person or 
thing as doing something, it is often called the active 
participle. 

The perfect participle commonly ends in ed (d), t, 
or en (n) : 

Delayed by a storm, we were an hour late. 
The mirror, broken in pieces, lay upon the floor. 
Taught to overreach everybody, he at last overreached his 
father. 

Since the perfect participle describes persons or things 
as enduring, or having something done to them, it is often 
called the passive participle. 1 

1 The boy has broken the glass = The boy has the glass broken. 
John has caught the ball == John has the ball caught. 



INFLECTIONS. 173 

There are also two infinitives : 

(1) The infinitive in ing, or participial infinitive, 
which differs from the active participle in doing the 
work, not of an adjective, but of a noun: 

Telling lies hardens the heart. 

The habit of smoking tobacco is hard to correct. 

(2) The root infinitive, or simplest form of the verb. 
The preposition to is usually placed before it : 

To work is to win. 

To drive rapidly in crowded streets is dangerous. 

Select the participles and infinitives, and tell of which 
kind each is, giving your reasons : 

1. He is slow to forgive. 

2. It began to caress him. 

3. These are wagons for carrying corn. 

4. Writing letters is making signs. 

5. I am sorry to hear this. 

6. A fisherman, leaving the shore, pulled out to the sunken 

reef in a boat kept for his use. 

7. Hearing a ship pounding on the rocks, he rowed till he 

saw the crew bound or clinging half-frozen to the 
shattered masts. 

8. You deserve praise for writing this letter. 

9. Throwing their muskets aside, after firing them once, the 

clansmen rushed upon the foe. 

10. Brandishing their broadswords, they swept through the 

already wavering ranks, giving them no time for 
rallying. 

11. I saw him walking in the garden, and looking at the 

men who were engaged in pruning the trees. 



174 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



Tell what participles these are, and from what verb 
each comes: 



beating 


beaten 


doing 


done 


becoming 


become 


drawing 


drawn 


befalling 


befallen 


drinking 


drunk 


beginning 


begun 


driving 


driven 


bidding 


bidden 


eating 


eaten 


biting 


bitten 


falling 


fallen 


blowing 


blown 


flying 


flown 


getting 


got 


running 


run 


giving 


given 


seeing 


seen 


going 


gone 


shaking 


shaken 


growing 


grown 


shaving 


shaven 


hewing 


hewn 


shearing 


shorn 


hiding 


hidden 


showing 


shown 


knowing 


known 


singing 


sung 


lying 


lain 


sinking 


sunk 


mowing 


mown 


sowing 


sown 


riding 


ridden 


speaking 


spoken 


ringing 


rung 


springing 


sprung 


rising 


risen 


stealing 


stolen 



The present and past tenses and the perfect participle of a 
verb are called its principal parts. 

Write in columns the principal parts of each of these 
words : 



become 


bid 


come 


crow 


fall 


flee 


fly 


grow 


lie 


rise 


raise 


shine 


shrink 


sing 


sit 


slide 


stand 


steal 


freeze 


strive, swear 


swim 


think 


tread 


be 


bid 


fight 


break 


throw 


do 


let 


fly 


smite 


ring 


run 


begun 


bring 


teach 


seek 


catch 


shine 



INFLECTIONS. 1 75 

In doubtful cases consult your dictionary. 

The English verb does not change its form except in 
the cases already mentioned. To express other shades 
of meaning, we employ certain combinations, or verb- 
phrases. We may regard these as substitutes for in- 
flection. 

Verb-phrases are made by using some root-infinitive 
or participle as the complement of another verb. Thus : 

He will walk. 
I have walked. 
She is coming. 
He may write. 
He was killed. 

Verbs thus used with infinitives and participles merely 
to make verb-phrases, are called auxiliary verbs. Shall, 
may, can, and must are always used in this manner. 
Do, be, have, and will are often so used, but sometimes 
they are principal. Thus : 



Principal 



' He does or did the work. 
I am (that is, I live or exist). 

I have a dog. 
.My father wills it. 



Auxiliary 



f Did you see him? 
J He is spliting rails. 






They have stolen my dog. 
v My father will return to-day. 



A verb can denote by its form only two kinds of time, 
— present, and past. 



I76 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

To form the future tense merely, put shall or will 
before the root-infinitive, using shall in the first person, 
and will in the second and third persons : 

I shall be there. [= I owe to be there.] 

Will you go ? [= you will to go ?] 

Will she not sing? [== she wills not to sing?] 

To promise or to resolve, use will with /, and shall 
with other subjects: 

I will do it. 

You shall not whisper. 

They shall vacate the house. 

I shall go \ I will go \ 

Thou wilt go > simply foretell. Thou shalt go • , 

He will go ) He shall go ) 

Sometimes the auxiliary is understood, the root- 
infinitive standing alone. 

If he [shall] be better, you may remain. 

If thy right eye [shall] offend thee, pluck it out. 

Followed by the perfect participle of a verb, have 
forms two tenses, — the present-perfect, which shows 
that the thing asserted is finished now; and the past- 
perfect, which shows that the thing asserted was finished 
before something else occurred : 

They have passed the corner. 
When we arrived, they had gone. 

The future tense of have prefixed to the perfect par- 
ticiple gives the future-perfect, which shows that the 



INFLECTIONS. 177 

thing asserted will be finished before something else 

occurs : 

They will have passed the corner. 

Name the tense of each verb and verb-phrase ; give 
also the tense of each auxiliary verb : 

1. We shall go to-morrow. 

2. They will be happy to do so. 

3. Calmness in danger has saved many. 

4. Is the baby well? 

5. Thirst causes agony. 

6. The two friends talked long together. 

7. Trials will come to us all. 

8. When I left, the coach had arrived. 

9. Woes cluster ; they love a train. 

10. Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of 

themselves. 

11. They will have finished the house before the occupants 

enter it. 

12. The driver carried them all to the hotel. 

13. Dingy houses looked down upon the filthy streets. 

Change the verbs into present-perfect, past-perfect, 
or future-perfect phrases, according as the verb shows 
present, past, or future time : 

1. He sings well. 

2. He wrote yesterday. 

3. They will go to-morrow. 

4. They could not wait. 

5. They should obey their parents. 

6. She had an instructor. 

7. We shall set out on his return. 

8. Can it be true? 

9. What could he answer ? 
10. Would he welcome you? 



178 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Make sentences, using the future tense and perfect 
tense-phrases of each of the following: 



went 


came 


drank 


clung 


sang 


slept 


flew 


rode 


sprung 


wore 


began 


rose 



If we wish to express permission or possibility, we 
use may : 

You may go ; that is, You are at liberty to go. 
You may still be in time. 

If we wish to express ability or power, we use can : 

I can write a letter. 
He can walk, if he will. 

The past forms, might and could, have similar mean- 
ings: 

He sent word that I might come. 
I could not come. 

If we wish to express compulsion or necessity, we use 
must : 

Men must work. 

You must not be noisy. 

Should, the past of shall, is frequently used with a 
present meaning to express duty or obligation : 

Children should obey their parents. 

Might, could, would, and should, though past tenses 
in form, are often used with more or less reference to 



INFLECTIONS. 1 79 

present or future time to express something condi- 
tionally : 

If I could come, I would do so. 

He might learn, if he would study. 

If he should call, I would not receive him. 

Should I go, I should return next week. 

Phrases formed by using the root-infinitive with may, can, 
must, might, could, would, or should, to express what is doubt- 
ful, conditional, or obligatory, are called Potential phrases. 

Regarding potential phrases as doing the duty of 
verbs, we may say that they make up a potential mode 
(or way) of asserting action or state : 

Present, — may, can, must ) 

Past, — might, could, would, should ) 



To form the corresponding perfects, prefix these same 
auxiliaries to have, and add the perfect participle: 

Present-perfect, — may, can, must, j haye ^ 

Past-perfect, — might, could, would, should J 

There remains to be noticed the potential use of the 
past tense of be. Thus : 

If I were to offer him water, he would drink. 
IVerehe to see me, he would know me. 
It were well it were done quickly. 

These statements are equivalent to : 

If I should offer him, etc. 

Should he see me, etc. 

It would be well [that] it should be done quickly. 



180 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Pick out the verbs, including the verb phrases ; give 
the mode, tense, number, and person of each, also the 
principal parts : 

i. Ye believed. 

2. Believest thou? 

3. Turn ye. 

4. Thou shunnedst 

5 . Whither walk we ? 

6. Shun folly. 

7. They enrolled. 

8. Stumbledst thou ? 

9. Believe it not. 
10. I wish to go. 

ii. Does he intend to speak? 

12. Though thou wert to speak, he would not hear. 

13. So be it. 

14. Unless he come, we stay. 

15. The nurse set the child on the floor an hour. 

16. A hen sits on her eggs to keep them warm. 

17. Carrie set her hen on ducks' eggs. 

18. William raised his hand before he rose. 

19. We lay on the grass after the sun went down. 

20. Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. 

21. If it arrive, I intend to give it to my son. 

22. Have the goodness to stand back. 

23. Ye have come. 

24. He may have come. 

25. I shall be under the necessity of stating the facts. 

26. They could hardly have done so. 

27. She might at least say what she means. 

28. Thou wilt put thyself right. 

29. He must find them hard to teach. 

30. They are to be sent back. 

31. Have they been shut out? 



INFLECTIONS. l8l 

32. I should be apt to lose the opportunity. 

33. ' If I might choose/ said the camel to Jupiter, ' I would 

have the neck of the swan, and the legs of the horse ; 
then I should be the king of the beasts.' ■ You could 
not have made a greater mistake/ replied Jupiter ; 
'if you had your way, you would be nothing but a 
giraffe.' 

Insert suitable verbs and participles ; give the mode 
and tense of each verb and verb-phrase : 

1 . They home-. 

2. Have they home? 

3. Yes, they have home. 

4. They had before I came. 

5. The pupils have their lessons well. 

6. They have the young birds. 

7. We the mother-bird too. 

8. The things were when you . 

9. He his work well. 

10. Has the bird away? 

11. It away yesterday. 

12. Its mate has from the tree. 

13. The plant fast after the rain. 

14. When did he come? He early this morning. 

15. His friend last night. 

16. I lost my book. Has any one it? 

1 7. I it lying on your desk. 

18. He too much water. 

19. The horse has enough. 

20. I have not a glass of water to-day. 

21. James rapidly to the shore. 

22. He has often across the river. 

23. The tiger upon his prey. 

Use the root-infinitive of each of the following words, 



1 82 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

and make sentences containing verb-phrases in the 
potential mode: 

spoke eaten drank grew 

wore given rang raised 

stole fell known rose 

Do makes the emphatic form of the verb : 

I do try. 

I do adore you. 

How it did storm ! 

It makes also a form of interrogation : 

Do you skate ? 
Does he often go alone? 
Did you like the play ? 
How do you do ? 

Finally, it makes a negative form : 

I do not skate. 

He does not often go alone. 

Change each of the following to the emphatic, the 
negative, and the interrogative forms in do : 

I see. Doctors differ. 

I saw. You know your lesson. 

Their journey ended. He thinks it will rain. 

Time works changes. Gently blows the evening breeze. 

If we say : 

I skate, 
She sings, 

the meaning is, that I know how to skate, that she 



INFLECTIONS. 1 83 

knows how to sing, and that we are in the habit of so 
doing; but if we say: 

I am skating, 
She is singing, 

the meaning is, that she and I are so employed now. 

Verb-phrases that represent the action of the verb as 
continuing, or actually in progress, make the progres- 
sive form of the verb. 

The progressive form is made by prefixing be in all 
its modes and tenses to the active participle : 



,i 



am \ ( was \ 

or I writing. I J or V writing. 

( have been J ( had been ) 

{shall be "\ ( may be \ 

or j- writing. l) or I writing, 

shall have been ) ( may have been J 

( might be \ 

I j or \ writing. 

( might have been ) 

Give the second and third persons, singular and 
plural, of each of the above phrases. 

Give the mode and tense of each verb, including the 
verb-phrases ; classify the verbals : 

1. A wise son maketh a glad father. 

2. You have not the heart to conceive nor the hand to 

execute. 

3. Tell me, my soul, can this be death? 

4. I did never see a tempest dropping fire. 

5. They shall be an abhorring to all flesh. 



1 84 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

6. My lambkins around me would oftentimes play. 

7. Then rushed the steeds to battle driven. 

8. Oh, leave me not in this eternal woe, 

For when thou diest, my love, I know not where to go ! 

9. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea. 

10. Wouldst thou demolish a driven leaf! 

11. Oh ! hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever? 

Change each verb to the progressive form, and give 
its mode and tense : 

1. He will preach. 

2. The boys must have played. 

3. I do not deceive you. 

4. We had discussed the point. 

5. The wind has roared all day. 

6. The wind blows from the east. 

7. She looked from the window when we arrived. 

8. Will you go? 

9. Study. 

10. Can he have sat? 

Insert suitable auxiliaries : 

1. Columbus thought that he reach the East Indies by 

sailing westward. 

2. You prepare your lesson, if you study. 

3. Close the doors ; nobody leave the room. 

4. We vote, if the polls are open. 

5. We vote in spite of you. 

6. They go, if they can. 

7. You have been killed. 

8. She not be allowed to go home alone. 

{To) have, prefixed to the perfect participle, makes 
the perfect infinitive : 



INFLECTIONS. 185 

Simple Infinitive \\ { 

( (to) have been 
Perfect Infinitive j (to) haye gm£ 

Having, an imperfect participle, prefixed to the per- 
fect participle, forms a compound perfect participle : 



Imperfect. 


Perfect. 


Compound Perfect. 


being 


been 


having been 


going 


gone 


having gone 



Pick out infinitives and participles, and tell all you 
can about each: 

1. We are commanded to love. 

2. To prevent is better than to cure. 

3. They laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. 

4. Richard having vacated the throne, Henry became king. 

5. The ghost appeared, the bell then beating one. 

6. I am delighted to have the opportunity of obliging you. 

7. London was guarded by soldiers to overawe resistance. 

8. These are goods of our own making. 

The subject of a verb may be said either to do or to 
receive the action expressed by the verb. Thus : 

( He calls. 
I He is called. 

\ The engine draws the train. 

< The train is draurn by the engine. 

f Every patriot will defend the flag. 

( The flag will be defended by every patriot. 

A verb that represents the subject as acting is in the 
active voice. 



1 86 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

A verb that represents the subject as acted upon, is 
in the passive voice. 

There being no single-word form that has a passive 
meaning, we are compelled, as the examples show, to 
use another kind of verb-phrase. 

The passive voice is formed by prefixing be, in 
all its modes and tenses, to the perfect participle of a 
transitive verb. 

Active and passive forms express the same thought 
when the object of the active is made the subject of the 
corresponding passive : 

De Soto discovered the Mississippi. 

The Mississippi was discovered by De Soto. 

The passive forms of the present and past indicative 
are sometimes made progressive : 

His money is being wasted. 

The house was being destroyed by fire. 

Change active forms to passive, and passive to active : 

i. Hitch your wagon to a star. 

2. Fulton invented the steamboat. 

3. The sun warms the earth. 

4. Good boys use books with care. 

5. You have helped us very much. 

6. The teacher had punished John. 

7. The bees will make honey. 

8. The wind is blowing the leaves along the street. 

9. When you arrive, the exercises will have been written. 

10. The house will be sold by the sheriff. 

11. She laid the book on the table. 



INFLECTIONS. 1 87 

12. They may have broken the window. 

13. Thou seest our sorrows. 

14. The letter must be written to-day. 

15. She cannot have received my letter. 

16. The gate will be opened by an old man. 

1 7. I was recognized by him at once. 

18. We have all been saved by you to-day. 

19. He was often interrupted by the deep hum of his audi- 

ence. 

20. Britain was subjugated by the Roman arms. 

21. A resolution directly condemning him could not be car- 

ried by them. 

22. My lord, the greatest injustice is done to us poets by you. 

23. It was a message whereby many hearts were lightened. 

24. William had been largely endowed by nature with the 

qualities of a great ruler, and those qualities had been 
developed in no common degree by education. 

25. The dangers whereby the State was threatened had been 

strongly represented to the king by Montague. 

The following tables afford a view of the common 
forms and phrases of a verb: 



FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

































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INFLECTIONS. 



189 





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190 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

The usual order of words in a sentence is, first, 
the subject; next, the verb ; and lastly (when there is 
one), the objective (a). The adjective commonly pre- 
cedes the noun (#), and the adverb generally follows 
the verb (V). Possessives are used before, and apposi- 
tives after, the words modified (d y e~). Participial ex- 
pressions are most frequently placed appositively (/). 
Thus: 

(a) They have eyes. 

(b) The snorting beast began to trot. 

(c) Time passes quickly. 

(d) Freedom's battle is ever won. 

(e) Dickens, the English novelist, died in 1870. 

(/) The road, winding through a thick forest, leads to a park. 

The usual order, however, is often changed; that is, 
inverted, or transposed : 

(a) Eyes have they. 

Whom did you see? 

Were others present? 

Is there no hope? 

There is no place like home. 

Does he want me ? 

Hear ye my words. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 191 

{b) The enemy, equally brave, began the conflict 
Men ready for work are what the world wants. 

(c) Here we take our stand. 

Softly fades the light of day. 

Around this lovely valley rise the purple hills. 

(e) A professed Catholic, he imprisoned the Pope. 

(/) Reaching for the bell-rope, I pulled it vigorously. 

Change to the usual order, putting the subject 
first: 

1. Flashed all their sabres bare. 

2. Dark was the night. 

3. There is no help for us. 

4. Which island do the French own ? 

5. There will be no sorrow there. 

6. Here ends the tale. 

7. Across the unknown sea the daring Genoese saw another 

route to India. 

8. Under the spreading chestnut- tree 

The village smithy stands. 

9. Duty points, with outstretched fingers, 
Every soul to action high. 

10. How easily and speedily does use breed habit in a man ! 

Re-write the following, transposing the whole or a 
part of each : 

j. Our faults are many. 

2. And I slew the victor. 

3. We laid him down slowly and sadly. 

4. The fate of empires depends upon the education of 

youth. 

5. I saw a bright vision at dead of night. 

6. The master of the district school, 
Brisk wielder of the birch and rule, 

Held at the fire his favored place. 



192 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

7. The great and good rest here in lowly graves. 

8. The man was sent to jail for stealing a horse. 

9. The robins were gathering straws to build their nests. 

10. The children could not play out of doors because of the 

cold. 

11. The boys could not float down the river as the water was 

so low. 

12. Susie and her mother came instead of Joe and his father. 

Change participles into verbs and conjunctions, or 
into verbs and relative pronouns: 

A little boy, running carelessly along the street, knocked 
against an old woman carrying a basket of eggs on her head. 
Down fell the basket, smashing all the eggs. The thoughtless 
boy at first ran on ; but, looking round and seeing the people 
staring, and the old woman beginning to cry, he turned back, 
saying, ' I am very sorry ; I would not have knocked against 
you, if I had seen you.' ' Yes, master/ replied the old woman, 
looking sadly at the fragments of her broken eggs lying about 
the dirty pavement, ' but your sorrow will not mend my eggs, 
nor feed my grandchildren waiting for bread at home.' 

Modifiers should be so placed that their depend- 
ence cannot be mistaken. Note the effect of chang- 
ing the position of only : 

Only the boy hit the bird. 
The boy only kit the bird. 
The boy hit the bird only. 

Rearrange so that the sentence may convey as clearly 
as possible just the meaning intended : 

1. A fellow was arrested with short hair. 

2. I saw a man digging a well with a Roman nose. 

3. He died and went to his rest in New York. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 193 

4. Wanted : A room by two gentlemen thirty feet long and 

twenty feet wide. 

5. Some garments were made for the family of thick 

material. 

6. The vessel was beautifully painted with a tall mast. 

7. I perceived that it had been scoured with half an eye. 

8. A house was built by a mason of brown stone. 

9. A house was built for a clergyman having seven gables. 

10. The old man struck the saucy boy raising a gold-headed 

cane. 

11. We saw a marble bust of Sir Walter Scott entering the 

vestibule. 

12. Here is news from a neighbor boiled down. 

13. I found a cent walking over the bridge. 

14. Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean climbing to the top 

of a mountain. 

15. All rivers are not so rapid. 

16. I should like to visit you very much. 

1 7. They only lost ten dollars by the transaction. 

18. I only recite in the morning. 

19. I heard all you said very distinctly. 

20. The fruit was sent in a basket which I ate with great 

relish. 

21. A child was run over by a wagon four years old. 

22. A fine view was obtained from the upper story of Niagara 

Falls. 

23. Rivers sometimes entirely dry up in summer that are 

roaring torrents in spring. 

24. What did people do before soap was invented which is 

now so common? 

25. How I pity the poor man on such an inclement night 

who has no home to go to ! 

The subject of a sentence (if a pronoun) is in the 
nominative case. In what case is it if a noun? (See 
page 147.) 



194 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

The object of a verb, of a verbal, or of a pre- 
position, should (if a pronoun) have the objective 
form. 

Intransitive and passive verbs and verbals have 
the same case after as before them, when both 
words denote the same person or thing: 

/am he. 

I knew it to be him. 

She was called Mabel. 

A noun or pronoun directly limiting another noun, 
and denoting ownership, should have the possessive 
form: 

The Indian's wigwam gave place to the settler's cabin. 

This is the only case-inflection of the noun. To show 
separate possession, use the possessive sign after the 
name of each person. To show joint possession, use 
the sign after the last name only. Thus : 

Henry's, Alfred's, and Ida's books are well preserved. 
Who were Cain and Abel's parents? 

Correct errors in the following : 

i. It is me. 

2. It was her. 

3. It will not be us. 

4. You are as bad as them. 

5. Them are my books. 

6. Him is older than me. 

7. I am younger than her. 

8. We are stronger than them. 

9. Him and me are of the same age. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 195 

10. Whom did you think has arrived? 

1 1 . Them that seek wisdom shall find it. 

12. She and us divided the grapes between us. 

13. Him and her went together to the well. 

14. I am certain that it was neither him nor her. 

15. Art thou that traitor angel? 

16. Art thou him? 

1 7. It is not me that he is angry with. 

18. I know not who has done this kindness, unless it be him 

who was so kind before. 

19. If it had been her, she would have told us. 

20. Thou art him, w T hom they described. 

21. It does not appear to be him. 

22. Motleys' History: mens' clothing; a boys' kite. 

23. Lady's maids. Childrens' playthings. Everybodies* 

business. 

24. Where is Smith's and Jone's store? 

25. Scott and Abbott's estimate of Napoleon differ greatly. 

26. Longfellow and Holmes's poems are widely read. 

27. Who can I trust? 

28. Miss Bell, who all admire, will be in the city next week. 

A verb should agree with its subject in number 
and person, 

A compound subject, consisting of two or more singu- 
lar nouns denoting different persons or things, and con- 
nected by and, is plural (a). 

When singular subjects connected by and name the 
same person or thing, or when they are preceded by 
each, every, or no, the verb should be singular (£). 

A compound subject, consisting of two or more 
singular nouns connected by or or nor, is singular (/). 

When subjects connected by or or nor differ in per- 
son or number, the verb agrees with the nearest (V). 



196 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

(a) Industry and perseverance ivin success. 

(b) My trusty counsellor and friend has warned me. 
Every boy and girl is to receive a copy. 

(c) Neither Nellie nor Alice is going. 

(d) Neither she nor I am invited. 
Are you or he going ? 

Neither Emily nor her sisters were there. 

Do not use the plural form of the verb merely because 
the noun or pronoun next to the verb is plural : 

One of the horses were sold. 

An appearance of religion and morals are useful. 

Another misleading case is that in which the subject is 
modified by two adjectives : 

His kind and even temper endear him to all. 

Correct the following : 

1. Thou is very happy. 

2. You was there. 

3. Was you present ? 

4. Here comes the boys. 

5. Where is my books? 

6. Has those books come? 

7. Is your friends coming? 

8. Was there many there ? 

9. Where was you when I called? 

10. They was unwilling to go. 

11. Those is my sentiments. 

12. Was you there when the accident happened? 

13. Neither Mary nor her sisters was at the party. 

14. ' Well/ says I, * what does thee think of him now?' 

15. The ship, with her crew, were lost at sea. 

16. No whisper, not a sound, were heard. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 197 

1 7. Milton's poetry and his prose is vigorous. 

18. Such, Mr. President, is my sentiments. 

19. Every one have certain peculiar opinions. 

20. Cincinnatus is one of the noblest men that is mentioned 

in Roman history. 

21. Six months' service were enough to cure him. 
- 22. He, and he only, were right. 

23. Who does these remarks apply to? 

24. Each branch and twig were covered with snow. 

25. How much shall I pay you? I only ask a dollar. 

26. I do not like neither his appearance nor his conversation. 

27. We always should prefer our duty to our pleasure. 

28. A soldier was signing a petition with a wooden leg. 

29. My friend talks to me while walking continually. 

30. The derivation of some words are uncertain. 

31. A round of vain and foolish occupations please some 

people. 

32. A variety of pleasing objects charm the eye. 

^^. Sixty pounds of wheat produces forty pounds of flour. 

34. The state of his affairs are very prosperous at present. 

35. Neither the lion nor the tiger are hard beasts to tame. 

36. Truth, and truth alone, are the object of my search. 

37. Silk, but not linen or muslin, are animal products. 
^8. Not a word, not a syllable, were uttered. 

39. The Yellowstone, as well as the Missouri, have been 

explored. 

40. Each hour, each moment, have their duties. 

41. Every fruit, every flower, and every blade of grass, testify 

to the wisdom of the Creator. 

Pronouns must agree in person, member, and gender 
with the nouns they represent. 

Singular antecedents connected by and require a plural 
pronoun when they denote different things, but a singu- 



198 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

lar pronoun ( 1 ) when they denote the same thing, and 
(2) when they are kept separated by the use of each, 
every, or no. 

Singular antecedents joined by or or nor require a 
singular pronoun. 

If the antecedents are of different persons or genders, 
the pronoun should agree with the first person rather 
than with the second or third, and with the second 
person rather than the third, and with the masculine 
rather than the feminine. 

Correct such of the following as are incorrect : 

1. Let every boy answer for themselves. 

2. A man's success in life depends on their exertions. 

3. Every tree is known by their fruit. 

4. The crowd was so great that I could hardly get through 

them. 

5. Let any boy guess this riddle if they can. 

6. Every animal, however small, has some weapon with 

which they can defend themselves. 

7. Both Webster and Clay loved his country. 

8. Either Webster or Clay loved their country. 

9. Both cold and heat have its extremes. 

10. John or James will favor us with their company. 
n. Some boy or man has lost his hat. 

12. Coffee and sugar are brought from the West Indies, and 

large quantities of it are consumed annually. 

13. Neither the captain nor the soldiers showed himself 

during the attack. 

14. If the boys or their father come, we shall be glad to 

see him. 

15. Every person should love their friends, and do good to 

them. 

16. No person should boast of themselves. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 1 99 

1 7. Let every pupil obey their teacher. 

18. The Christian who knows their duty loves their God. 

19. Every one must judge of their own feelings. 

20. The jury was unanimous in their decision. 

21. If an Aristotle, a Pythagoras, or a Galileo suffer for their 

opinion, they are martyrs. 

22. Poverty or wealth have their own temptations. 

23. No son or daughter lives who does not love their parents. 

24. If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast 

them from thee. 



Adjectives implying unity or plurality must agree 
in number with their nouns. 

An adjective of the comparative degree should be 
used when only two objects are compared. 

An adjective, not an adverb, should be used as 
predicate-complement to express the condition of the 
subject. 

Be careful not to use an adjective for an adverb to 
tell how or to modify another adjective. 

Remember that two negatives are equal to an affirma- 
tive. 

Never use them adjeetively for those. 

Use each other, either, and neither in speaking of two 
persons or things. Use one another, any, and none, in 
speaking of more than two persons or things. 

Two or more adjectives used after the noun or 
pronoun modified, should be separated from the 
rest of the sentence by commas. 



200 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

Correct the errors in the following : 

i. Will you please hand me them books. 

2. The water in the river is only six foot deep. 

3. The walk in front of the house is ten foot wide. 

4. I am very fond of those kind of grapes. 

5. Mr. Clevenger has some of them kind of apples. 

6. I never liked those sort of pictures. 

7. This young lady dances elegant 

8. She is thinly clad, and looks coldly. 

9. I feel badly. 

10. Marble feels coldly. 

11. She looks charmingly. 

12. It was sold cheaply. 

13. It appears still more plainly. 

14. That sounds harshly. 

15. I can do that very easy. 

16. His hand was bruised very bad. 

1 7. That train moves rapid. 

18. The children sang excellent. 

19. This is extreme cold weather. 

20. Who did you call? 

21. Them are the ones. 

22. Harry and me have been busy. 

23. George and Walter destroyed that beautiful tree, but they 

did it unintentional. 

24. That elephant is enormous large. 

25. The waves rose dreadful high. 

26. The steamer rocked terrible. 

27. The boys conducted themselves quieter than the girls. 

28. The servant looks carefully, and I will employ him, for I 

think he will look careful to our interests. 

29. The skaters glide smooth over the ice. 

30. Her hat looks newly, because it has been new trimmed. 

31. She dresses suitable to her station. 

32. Mary always dresses neat, and she looks neatly in any 

dress. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 201 

33. She wore a dress suitable to her station. 

34. I chiefly wanted the money, not the papers. 

35. He rode to the pasture, driving his cow before him on 

horseback. 

36. Next came a Dutchman riding a small donkey with a big 

pipe in his mouth. 
3 7. This poem was written by a young lady who was born in 

Virginia at the age of fourteen years. 
38. The agent was only instructed to buy the house, not the 

lot. 

Use correctly the auxiliaries may and can, shall 
and will. 

Correct the following : 

1. I will drown, nobody shall help me. 

2. I will be obliged to you if you shall attend to it. 

3. We will have gone by to-morrow morning. 

4. I do not think I will like the change. 

5. You shall be late if you do not hurry. 

6. ' You can go/ said the teacher. 

7. They would not come unto me, that they may receive 

my blessing. 

8. I thought it likely I would see you. 

9. I heard that you should leave on Monday. 

10. I will freeze if I do not move about. 

1 1 . She shall be fifteen years old to-morrow. 

12. You will have it if I can get it for you. 

13. He will have it if he shall take the trouble to ask for it. 

14. Take up the ashes and put it in the barrel. 

15. No one of the boys came without their books. 

16. The Government will have to change their orders. 

1 7. Neither the boy nor the girl can take care of themselves. 

18. The best horse which we saw was the same one which 

your father bought. 

19. Pupils should always be kind to each other. 



202 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

20. Husband and wife should respect one another's feelings. 

21. Every boy and every girl had their lesson. 

22. The soldiers, and not the captain, did his duty. 

23. Where is the horse whom you lately bought? 

24. There was a flock of sheep watched by a dog which had 

lately been sheared. 

Do not use the past participle instead of the past 

tense of a verb ; as : 

He done it. 
I seen him. 

Do not use the past tense after an auxiliary verb ; 

as: 

He has did [done] it. 

I have saw [seen] that before. 

Do not confound lie with lay. The first is intransi- 
tive, and its principal parts are //>, lay y lain. The 
second is transitive, and its principal parts are lay y laid } 
laid. Thus : 

(1) The book lies on the floor. 

It lay on the floor this morning. 
It has lain there all day. 

(2) I lay my book on the table thus. 
I laid it there yesterday. 

I have often laid it there. 

Do not confound sit with set. The first is intransi- 
tive, the second is generally transitive : 

( 1 ) The wild duck sits on her nest. 
He sat on the fence. 

I have sat here since morning. 

(2) Set the chairs in order. 

I set them in order last evening. 
He had set the pitcher on the table. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 203 

Do not confound raise with rise. The first is tran- 
sitive and regular; the second is intransitive and 
irregular : 

(1) They raise corn. 

They raised a crop of wheat last year. 
They have raised good crops this year. 

(2) Rise up. 

I rose early this morning. 
I have risen earlier. 

Correct the following : 

1. I should have went if you had asked me. 

2. I wish I had chose a different seat. 

3. A certain man become rich, and soon begun to be weary 

of having nothing to do. 

4. The French language is spoke in every part of Europe. 

5. The river has raised a great deal. 

6. I saw six ships laying at anchor. 

7. Why do you lay there ? 

8. How can you set in that chair? 

9. I have wrote for the books, but they have not came. 

10. The bird has flew out of its cage, and it will be eat by the 

cat. 

11. I seen him when he come home yesterday. 

1 2. Has any one saw the book my father has gave me ? 

13. They must have ran the race before we arrived. 

14. I have saw such things many a time. 

15. The houses were shook by the storm. 

16. The apartments should have been showed to us. 

1 7. Those words were spoke by somebody who was present 

at the time. 

1 8. The fox had sprang the trap. 

19. She has strove hard to win the victory. 

20. The boys have swam across the pond. 



204 FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 

21. He sat the chair in the corner. 

22. Sit that plate on the table and let it set. 

23. I have set in this position a long time. 

24. That child will not lay still or set still a minute. 

25. I laid down under the tree and enjoyed the scenery. 

26. Lie that stick on the table and let it lay. 

27. Which of the twins is the fattest. 

28. Which is the longer, the Amazon, the Mississippi, or the 

Nile? 

29. The Volga is the longest of any river in Europe. 

30. The rose is the most fragrant of any other flower. 

31. Though my barn is larger than yours, your's is the 

prettiest. 

32. The French are more polite than any nation. 
^^. She done her task very well. 

34. I seen the man yesterday. 

35. He is accused of having stole a watch. 

36. His friends have all forsook him. 

37. This man has visited Europe last summer. 

38. It will grieve your parents to have heard of your conduct. 

39. Every man, woman, and child were lost. 

40. Not one of the prisoners have escaped. 

41. Neither of the boats were injured. 

42. This rose smells sweetly. 

43. That young lady dances very graceful. 

44. I can never think so mean of him. 

45. We travelled as safe in the cars as in our own carriage. 

46. That tree is fifty foot high. 

47. Those sort of people are never happy. 

48. Look sharp, if you wish to see good. 

49. He came agreeable to his promise. 

50. The elephant has more sagacity than any animal. 

51. The army numbers one thousand horses and ten thou- 

sand feet. 

52. Iron is the most useful of all other metals. 

53. Venus is brighter than any star in the firmament. 



HOW TO USE THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 205 

54. Do not touch them books lying on that 'ere table. 

55. Each of you must attend to their own affairs. 

56. Husband and wife should love one another. 
5 7. Pupils must not talk to each other in school. 

58. She was dressed very rich, and appeared very proudly. 

59. None of my feet are lame, and all my eyes are sound. 



THE END. 



